The Starting Point
by the-aksiz-inator
Summary: What's the real reason the Capitol invented the Hunger Games? How is Elijah going to alter the course of history? How is Elise going to survive as a demigod? Who will come out as victor? FULL SUMMARY INSIDE!
1. The Capitol People Are Total Jerkfaces

**SUMMARY:**

**The dark days are over. Elise thinks there's nothing that could go wrong, right? The demigods are safe, right? Well, they are, until the Capitol introduces the Hunger Games. After being defeated by the odds, she is picked to go fight in the very first Hunger Games. Things get worse than that. When she finds out the male tribute, her life becomes living hell. On top of that, odd things are happening in the Arena. How will Elise survive in the arena as a demigod? How will her brother change the course of history forever? What is the REAL reason why the Capitol invented the Hunger Games in the first place?**

**PROLOGUE:**

"This is the last time this will happen! I thought we kept them in order!" says a voice.

"Who are you talking about? _Them,_ or the districts?" says another.

"BOTH!" the first voice yells.

"They still manage to get to out undetected," the second voice says quietly.

"SHUT UP! Call a council! We need to sort this out so this NEVER happens again!" the first voice says.

"Right on it, sir."

**ONE HOUR LATER**

"But sir, who says we can't influence the reapings?"

**_Note: I'm sticking in the first chapter here :D_**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these fantastic stories I'm using :D**

I personally think that it's hardest for me to get to camp. Since I live in District 2, we have our Peacekeepers, we're the Capitol's lapdogs (and right next to the Capitol) and I live one the direct opposite side of Panem from Camp Half Blood, which is located on an island in the ruins of District 13.

There has to be some way for me to get to camp. I need to train to survive because monsters can sometimes get past the fence in District 2. The mortals are oblivious, and never seem to notice them, though, so I have to take care of them. I need to train to fight them, so I have to get to camp. There is no doubt about that.

I have been just picked up to get to camp, and my backside doesn't like the feeling of being sat on for eight hours on a helicopter. Yes, we take a helicopter to camp. We can't exactly travel to camp by train or car or something, and District 13 has helicopters, so we're stuck with that.

My brother John is sitting next to me. He's also a son of Ares, and we both live in District 2. "Look!" he says. He points out the window.

At first, I only see charred, smoldering grounds from when the Capitol recently bombed District 13 to the ground. Then I look again, this time more closely, and I see a patch of grass. As the helicopter lowers more to the ground, I can see it more clearly. It is not just a patch of green amongst the burnt grass, but it is Camp Half-Blood. With luscious fields of strawberries, heavy woods with deadly monsters roaming around, and of course, the beautiful shining blue lake. This is my second home. The place where I've learned to fight off monsters practically my whole life.

"Finally!" I exclaim. I begin to stand up, but the assistant pilot of the helicopter gives me a cold look, and I plop back down.

_I'm glad I got here safely, _I think. _I hope no one notices I'm gone._ We're not really supposed to leave our districts, and every year since I was eight I always prayed no one noticed I was gone. Try explaining where you've been for two months to the Head Peacekeeper. _Oh yeah! I went to summer camp! Yeah, the one where we learn to kill of monsters! __It was so much fun!_

The spring breeze started flowing the second the helicopter opened and someone let down a ladder to the ground. We are finally here! At last! My heart starts racing. I'm very excited and also anxious to get to camp. I've been sitting in this helicopter longer than anyone here, and I'm really desperate to stretch my aching legs. I run over to the ladder, accidentally shoving people out of the way.

"Hey, Peacekeeper girl, why are you so desperate to get to camp?" a girl named Avril teases. I stick my tongue out at her.

"Because," I say, "I'm fed up with being cooped up all year long in oh-so-sweet District 2. Also, my butt hurts." I smile.

"I thought you guys were just the Capitol's lackeys. Don't you only care about honoring your district?" she says. Ouch. That hurt.

"Yeah, do you think you could get some nicer Peacekeepers over here in 3?" said a Hephaestus kid whose name I didn't know. I laugh, and I start climbing down the long ladder into camp.

Ahh. . . Camp, sweet camp. A nice rest from the war that just ended, which the Capitol calls the Dark Days. The moment I step down onto the ground, I hear somebody call "Elise!"to me. I look around for a moment behind me and I see my best friend Lana. I run over to where she is.

"Lana!" I yell as I bombard her with hugs.

She hugs me back, and says, "I missed you!" She probably really does. It's not like we can communicate to people outside our districts.

"I just got here on the first helicopter ten minutes ago," she says.

"Do you know how many are left?" I ask her.

"I think two. Maybe three," she says.

As time goes on, we see the two other helicopters with demigods being brought from their districts. More demigods come off, including my four other siblings that we know are alive at the moment.

It's kind of weird, now that the Dark Days are over. Apparently District 13 is supposed to be demolished, and I can kind of see that now that everywhere outside of camp is burnt plains. Camp Half-Blood remains unharmed and as beautiful as ever, but I get what they mean when District 13 got bombed. No, not bombed. Probably nuc'd. Which is kind of ironic because District 13 produces nuclear power.

Whatever. I try to be happy because the war is over. Chiron greets us with a warm smile and welcomes us back. He obviously seems happy about everything, but I can see something in his face that seems wrong. I am about to go down to the beach to hang out with Lana, but before we disperse off to do that, he announces, "There is a required showing going on in five minutes. Come on into the camp-orientation-video-room." _What now?_ I wonder.

"Like, Capitol required?" someone asks.

"Yes, Capitol required. I think they are just announcing that the Dark Days are over," Chiron replies. I can see in his face that it's a lot worse than that. He gives us a fake smile and trots over to the camp-orientation-video-room and we come follow him.

_This is interesting. Us demigods aren't supposed to be around technology. _I'm thinking as I walk arm-in arm with Lana. "What do you think they want?" I ask. "It's kind of obvious that the Capitol came up on top."

"I have no clue," Lana replies. We step into the room where Chiron went into. It looks kind of like a mini movie theater and there's a 54' inch plasma TV normally for the camp orientation video, hence camp-orientation-video-room. Chiron turns on the TV and he flips through the channels as more and more demigods come in. There's only about 25 of us total living from when we last counted, so we all made a tight fit in there. I am squished in between Lana and Avril.

"I think this is it," Chiron says, and I see the face of the dreaded president of Panem. President Justice stares at me with cold eyes and a fake smile. I glare back. "We have a very important announcement to make and we also have some good news!" he exclaims with an almost-convincing tone.

"Let's start with the good news," he says. "The Dark Days are finally ended, and of course, our wonderful Capitol has come up on top!" There are cheers from the audience behind him. There are groans from us, and probably the rest of Panem. He continues.

"Now, before any of you get the horrifying idea to rebel again, we have come up with a fun and entertaining way to remind you not to rebel. The Hunger Games," he says. More cheers from the audience, but this time it is sounds of confusion from us.

"That's a pathetic name!" someone in the room yells. I start laughing, and everyone else eventually joins in at some point. President Justice continues to explain what these hungry games are.

"Each summer, we will hold the Hunger Games, where 24 people will come to the Capitol; a courageous young man and woman from the ages of 12 to 18 will be picked at random from each of the twelve outlying districts. " More sounds of confusion went through the room. _The Capitol inviting random people to the Capitol? This doesn't sound normal, but hey, it sounds cool._

"Here in the Capitol, they will be trained for one week on the art of survival. Then, the tributes will be put in an arena for a fight-to-the death showdown. The last tribute that is standing is the winner." My jaw drops. The President has a winning smile. Cheers from the crowds in the Capitol.

"These games will be the perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate your courage, sacrifice, and ultimately bring honor to your district."

"What?" Lana yells.

"Fight to the death?" someone else yells. It's really shocking.

"Yes, a fight-to-the-death showdown! We will be calling these games The Hunger Games. At the end of June, we will hold the reapings. May the odds be _ever _in your favor!" One last second of a gleaming smile, then darkness. The seal of the Capitol. Silence throughout the whole room.

It takes a few minutes for someone to say something. "Did that really just happen?" someone from the crowd says. More silence.

Slowly, after about five minutes, we all disperse to our cabins for about an hour to process exactly what happened and why the capitol is doing it. Lana goes off to the Demeter cabin. I go off to the Ares cabin.

Now that we're all separated into our different districts, it's easy to guess which god or goddess is your parent. All the Hephaestus kids are from District 3, while all the Poseidon kids are from District 4, and all the Demeter kids are from District 11. I'm a daughter of Ares, which kind of makes sense because I'm supposed to be a killing machine with this peacekeeper stuff we have in District 2.

I slowly walk back to my cabin to ponder what happened.

After a really awkward silence of everyone laying down on their beds, John says, "Well, like he said, it's a nice excuse to get some honor to our district."

"And possibly die," says Caleb, our other brother.

"Who cares? We've been training for this kind of thing our whole life. How hard can it be?" John says. He smirks, and then lies down again.

Well, I guess that that whole Hunger Games announcement just plain ruins the day. And maybe even the whole summer. After a dreary and silent dinner because we're still taking in all of this news, we head off to bead quietly without any fire.

We all had a big day that was crushed. Dreams were worse for me. Along with my typical bad demigod dreams, I start having dreams of me getting picked for the Hunger Games. Of me dying a horrible bloody death and nobody seems to care.

I wake up around 2 in the morning and my body basically tells me that I'm not going to get any more sleep the rest of the night. I slip out of bed and I don't bother to put on shoes. I slowly creep out of the cabin. I am about to go over to the Canoe Lake by myself until I realize I need Lana to come with me.

I go over to the Demeter cabin and whisper "Lana!" I throw a rock at the window. "Lana!" I say again.

The door opens, and I see a frizzy haired, tired looking Lana. "You couldn't sleep either?" she asks.

"Come on. We're going down to the lake," I tell her. I then make a run for the lake, and she follows me close behind.

I sit down on the sand. Little teeny waves are washing on and off shore. The moon is bright, and the sky dark. "Okay, spill it. Something's bothering you," Lana says. She sits down next to me.

"It's just. . . I don't know what to think about these Hunger Games. I mean, I don't want to die, or kill 23 people, but then again, in District 2, we're all about honoring our district. You heard what President Justice said. This would be the perfect opportunity to give honor to our district. And then again, I'm a pathetic excuse for a child of Ares, and I need to prove my worth to him . . ." I ramble on.

"Okay, I get it. I get it!" Lana says. "It'll be okay. There's what, 50,000 people in your District."

"Yeah, but not all of them are 12-18," I remark.

"Okay, fine. Let's say about 10,000 girls ages 12-18. That's still a really slim chance your name will get drawn. Don't sweat it." She has a good point.

"But what about Elijah?" I ask her.

"So what? His odds are really slim as well!" You may be wondering who Elijah is. He's my pesky 12 year old brother. Well, half brother. He's just a mortal. Even though he gets really immature at times, I love him to death.

"Don't sweat it. You can't let this ruin our summer. You'll be fine," she says. _You'll be fine. _I think to myself. _You'll be fine. _


	2. The World Feels Like It Will Explode

**Kbgoalie31 alerted my story, but no reviews. THAT'S WHY THIS ONE IS LATE. I want to give a virtual hug to Kbgoalie31! *Gives hug* NOW. GOOD FF FANS. REVIEW. NOW. I just want to know what you think of the story, and as punishment, you get this long lecture! JK. Let's get to the point:**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the fantastilastically awesome Hunger Games or Percy Jackson!**

Camp slowly goes back to normal, or as normal as it can be. There's still that shock in the air and the feeling that one of us might be picked to die, which we just might be. Still, we go on with our regular classes, capture the flag every once in a while, but something seems different. Chiron seems to be drilling us more on survival tactics. At first I just think that it's just in case one of us gets picked for the Games, but there's a look in his face that tells me that he knows something I don't know.

"Uh, Chiron, can I talk with you a moment?" I ask one day after archery class (Which I happen to be terrible at.)

"Of course, young one. Is there something the matter?" he asks.

"Oh, it's nothing. I guess it seems like you've been training us more on survival tactics. . . Like stuff we'd need if we ever entered the Hunger Games," I say. I take a deep breath. "It just seems like we're going to be picked or something. The odds are really slim, you know."

"Yes, I know. You can never be too sure, can you?" he says. I see his face twitch for a split second and I know he's hiding something, but I decide not to grill him on it. "Now, shouldn't you be off to Drakon Fighting class?"

I sigh. I don't think that Drakon Fighting class is very practical. Chiron says, "You know, there once was a daughter of Ares who defeated a Drakon. She knew how to because of all the training she did in class. Her name was . . . wasn't it Clarisse? Yes, but that was a very long time ago, before the Capitol was even around," he explains.

"Now, go along," he says.

I head off to Drakon fighting class with a good spirit, but some of my questions are still unanswered.

A few days later, Chiron calls all the 12 to 18 year olds to the big house for a meeting. "We need to enter you all in the reapings for the Games this summer," he says. "If you are twelve, then you enter your name in once. Thirteen, twice, and fourteen, 3 times. So on and so forth," he explains.

"You can also enter in your name for extra grain and oil," Chiron says.

"How much?" asks Avril.

"Enough grain and oil for one person for one year," he says.

Since I'm fourteen, I have to enter in my name 3 times. I come from a wealthier district than some other people, but we're sometimes really tight on money, so I got enough for my family and I enough grain for about a year, and I had my mom enter me about 7 times, even though she was very reluctant. "Elijah is not to take ANY tesserae!" I tell her over the phone.

Chiron brought us to camp early because the Dark Days were ending and he wanted us to be safe if anything happened. The end of June is coming, I dread the day that I have to go back home to District 2, sweet District 2. I worry that I could get killed in the process, because I'm not necessarily supposed to be outside my district.

Time flies by, and before I know it, it is the day before the reapings. We all have to get back on our stupid District 13 helicopters to sneak us back into our different districts. There is one helicopter for three districts, and unfortunately, 2 and 11 aren't in the same helicopter, so I have to say goodbye to Lana.

"Bye," I say. I go in to hug her. "I'll miss you."

"I will too. Look," she says. and looks me straight in the eye. "Don't sweat it. You'll be fine. There's like 10,000 of you." She gives me another hug and then runs off to be taken away for another 10 months.

I slowly step up the ladder to the helicopter that is going to smuggle me back in. I look down and see the hot and sweet-smelling strawberry fields. The glistening water on the beach. The cabins that are totally unique to one another. I'm going to miss this place.

"Go ahead. Take forever," Caleb says. He's right below me on the rope ladder. I hurry up and climb in.

I'm one of the four people in District 2 that's a demigod. We're all siblings: all children of Ares. Also in here are the three Aphrodite kids, and the only Hephaestus kid we know living: Aphrodite is from District 1, and Hephaestus is from District 3.

Due to the placement of the Districts, District 2 is scheduled to go last on our magical journey back to our districts. After sitting around for about six hours, the Hephaestus kid is dropped down into a field about five miles from where he lives. It's sunset by now, and we can't drop him off into the small town where he lives because the peacekeepers would probably notice!

Next stop: District 1. By now, it is probably around 10 at night. District 1 is North of the Capitol, and while looking out of the window, I can see glimpses of light coming from far off in the distance. This must be the Capitol. The party city. Where everything is open 24/7.

After dropping off the three District 1 Aphrodite kids, It is probably almost midnight. The moon is up in the sky and it's a miracle the pilots of this helicopter can see where they're going, much less stay awake.

Unfortunately, I get the news that I will be dropped off last. And I live on the western side of District 2, so It'll take a while for me to be dropped off.

I'm finally relieved when I finally am in the outskirts of the town where I live and I finally get to climb the ladder down, because my dinner is making signs of a possible reappearance.

By now, it's about three in the morning, and I'm also kind of tired. You know, sitting in a helicopter for ten hours, just great, right? I climb down the long, long ladder down. As my feet touch the cold, hard ground, the rope ladder pulls up, and I make the journey to my house. I've lived there ever since I can remember, and I can even navigate my way through almost pitch darkness. I'm just that awesome.

I get home and I creep through the secret side door we have. I call it the secret entrance. I feel so glad that I didn't get caught by and peacekeepers roaming the streets, searching for anyone who got out past lights out: 10 PM. Through the window of the door to my apartment, I see the blinding light of a Peacekeeper truck go by. _Boy am I lucky!_ I think. "I didn't get caught!" I say out loud. I'm exhausted by now. I trudge upstairs and go up to bed for a sleepless night.

_Come on. Remember what Lana said. There's 10,000 of you, Elise. _It's an almost sleepless night for me.

Reaping day. That's the official term now. The day where if you get picked, it's basically a death sentence. Your soul gets reaped for all eternity. That makes kind of sense. Luckily, my town is only 5 hours away from where they hold the official reapings, so after a lame breakfast of cereal and milk around 9:30 am, my family heads off so we can get there early.

Both my mother and my step-father come to the reaping. Our car is old and busted up, and since my step-dad is some sort of general with the Peacekeeping people, we get the huge luxury of having a car. Only about half the families in our district do, and from what I hear, most people out of our district don't have one.

The whole ride there is totally silent. I look at the window at boring meadows and the occasional town that looks like a military camp and I try and keep telling myself that I'm not going to get picked. I'm not going to get picked. My poor half brother is only 12, so he barely managed to squeeze his name into the reapings once.

_Don't you want fame and honor for your District? _I think. _Of course you do! Just don't die! _Most people probably feel the way I do: they want to honor District 2, but don't want to die in the process.

I remind myself that there are about 20,000 boys and girls. I only submitted 7. That's a slim chance, right? I hope so. After our 5 hour long totally silent trip, my family pulls into a pay-by-the-hour parking space, and my step-dad pops quarters in the slot, and a 1:30 is put in big numbers on a screen.

I guess you could call the town that we're in the Capitol of District 2. This place is right next to the border of District 2, and the westernmost city in it. There's an absolutely giant square smack in the middle of it and about 10,000 boys and girls are already milling around in the roped off sections.

I go and sign in, and I find out that this requires a prick and a bit of blood, but that doesn't scare me. It kind of freaks out Elijah, though. "Chill out," I tell him. After getting my finger pricked, some guards lead me and a pack of other 14 year old girls to the fourteen year old girls section of the roped off area, and Elijah goes over to the twelve year old boys section. Poor him. All crammed in the back with about 2,000 other insanely nervous looking boys.

Our district is one of the generally larger ones, so when reaping begins, there's 20,000 twelve-to-eighteen year olds packed together in perfectly straight lines and rows like squirrels, grouped by gender and age.

After about ten minutes of waiting, a bell rings that signifies that it's 3 PM, and then a few moments later, A middle-aged looking man steps up to a microphone. He has curly dark gray hair and is wearing a black suit with a striking blue tie. Before him lies a table with two ginormous glass circular bowls filled three quarters of the way with slips with names of people clearly written out. Seven of the tens of thousands of slips have my name on them. I calm down when I see exactly how big the bowl is.

The man with the blue tie says "I'm so glad that you all are here!" into the microphone. Silence and glares are directed back towards him.

He continues, saying with a cheery smile on his face, "We warmly welcome everyone that's here to witness the very first reapings of the annual Hunger Games!" More silence.

Things get a tad bit awkward, so he continues on and says, "Ladies first!"

The whole entire square goes silent. You could hear a pin drop. Utter silence and tension come from everybody's face. I feel so tense I can't move. He digs his hand deep in the bowl, shuffling papers all throughout the giant bowl, and then takes a slip out, with a pleased smile on his face.

He makes a dramatic effect of opening the paper slowly, smiling as he reads the name. For this one second, only he knows who was picked. More tension. The world feels like it might explode at any second.

He opens the paper and reads the name clearly written on the sheet of paper.

**^_^ Your punishment for not reviewing.**

**YOU GET A CLIFFIE.**

**Now, I WILL get a new chapter in on Tuesday, but I really need some reviews! A sentence or two is all it takes!**

**Again, I now give a virtual cookie to Kbgoalie31. Here you go: (::) Thank you! :D**

**TO BE CONTINUED.**


	3. Ares and John Make Me Depressed

**YIPPEE. You guys got this one early. BECAUSE OF YOUR FANTASTIC REVIEWS. O_O THEY WERE FANTASTIC. I dedicate this chapter to Terrace Lilly, probably my favorite reviewer. . .ever. **

**Terrace Lilly: *faints* **

***Talking Waffle poofs in* **

**Me: What, are you still feeling dry? **

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Hunger Games, then the movie would be out tommorow. If I owned Percy Jackson, then I'd give myself a copy of Mark of Athena! **

**PS, I'm Heroes-of-Olympusing things up a bit, and I'm switching POVs of Elise and Elijah every three chapters. OMG I just realized both names start with the letters ELI**

**TO THE STORY.**

"Elise Wells," he calls out with a smile on his face.

At first I convince myself that it's fake. "Elise Wells," the man up front calls again, because nobody seems to be moving. _Elise Wells...That's me._It takes me a few seconds to process. I have been picked to die. Well, maybe. He repeats himself. "Elise Wells, please come up here." I jump and I fully realize that he's calling me. People stare at me as I file out of line and to the long way to the stage where the reaper is.

I slowly walk the 100 meters up to where the man is standing. I climb the steps and stand next to him. I swallow. _Chill out. You can do this. Just don't die._ I tell myself. I feel like screaming, but the voice inside me isn't anywhere to be found. _You've been trained for this your whole life. Just pray you don't know the Male tribute. . . . _I keep thinking to myself.

After another really awkward silence, the man continues on. "And now Gentlemen!" he says. He digs his hand through the bowl, and then pulls out a slip of paper. He opens it, but not as dramatically as he did for me. He makes his I-Know-Who's-Going-To-Die-And-You-Don't! Smile. I take a deep breath.

_The odds really haven't been in my favor so far. . . What if it's Elijah? Wait, what? It's not going to be Elijah! Why are you so paranoid? _All I think to myself. _It's not going to be-_

"Elijah Wells," he calls.

"WHAT?" I scream. Not my brother. No, this is NOT my brother who just got called! Elijah! He's just twelve!

_Chill out, Elise. Nothing's happening. You're probably just imagining. Now just wait until he calls out the real name. _

"Elijah Wells," he says again, slowly. I break when a wide-eyed, jaw-dropped Elijah squirms out of the back of the twelve year old boy's section. This time I can't hold it. My emotions fall out of me. I collapse down on my knees and burst into tears. I can't contain it. He walks the long, long way up here faster than I did.

I continue to let all my emotions out. "Well, it looks like we have two siblings that were picked!" he says, looking at two of the slips. I start hyperventilating. "No. No. No-no-no-no-no-no-no. . . NO!" I finally scream. "This is not happening. Not happening." I whisper to myself.

The thing is, it IS happening. I love my brother, and now I _have to kill him?_It just shows how much power the Capitol holds: "Since you guys rebelled, we're going to do something worse than kill you. We're going to kill your children."

Elijah finally trumps up, and I go over to him and hug him. Tears are pouring out of my eyes even though I don't mean them to. He is a little teary eyed, but more stricken with fear looking. He has a 99% emotionless face. The 1% is the little tears forming around his eyes. I start to panic and I hug him. I can' t let it go.

I can hear the loud sobbing of my parents despite they're about half a mile away. "Well, this is a first," the reaper says. He laughs and says, "Of course it's a first. This is the first Annual Hunger Games!" He smiles, and says, "And may the odds be _ever _in your favor! There we have it!"

I'm still processing everything as Peacekeepers surround Elijah and I, leading us over to the District 2 Justice Building. Elijah is taken to a different room. I sit there in silence. I love my brother more than anything. We're best friends. They CAN NOT do this to us.

This room is probably the most luxurious I've ever been. _I wonder what the Capitol's going to be like, _I wonder as I sit down on a velvet couch, rubbing my hand back and forth on it.

I feel all the despair in the world. I'm feeling so-so about being in the Hunger Games in the first place, but really, me, pitched against my brother and 22 other people? Even if a District 2 champion won, only one of us would come back alive. _There's twenty four of us, Elise! Only one comes out!_I tell myself. I shove my hands into my face and try to compose myself.

_Come on, isn't there some rule out there that maybe if 2 tributes left from the same district they could be declared winners? _I'm thinking, but I know that this is the Capitol's way of torturing us. There is no loophole around this. One of us is going to have to die.

I just sit there. Elijah and I . . . Normal siblings fight, but Elijah and I _never_ fight. We're best friends. (Well, besides Lana and I) Really, my poor little brother picked out of about 10,000 slips. No, two families won't be mourning. It's just going to be my poor mother and my step father.

After about twenty minutes, my mother is shoved into the room where I am being held by guards. "You get ten minutes," they say. She then slowly walks into the room, silent tears going down her cheeks. I am hugging her in under a second. "Please don't leave me," she whispers. This is one of the few moments where she isn't serious. "I'll come back. Don't worry," I promise her. "But then, what about Elijah?" She asks. This induces more crying. She runs her fingers through my long dark blonde hair.

"It'll be okay, mom," I say. It's now me comforting her. We just stand there in silence. I can feel her heart beating as I hug her. I don't want this moment to end. I know it will end soon.

After a minute or two of silence, guards come in and drag my helpless mother away. "Don't go!" I scream. I try to run to her, but more guards come towards me. I collapse down into my seat, and then my step father is shoved in. He looks like an older version of Elijah, with short brown hair, jade green eyes that I also have, even though he isn't my official father.

He doesn't say anything, but comes in to hug me instead. His face is emotionless. After a few moments, I sit down again. _Elise! _I hear a voice in my head. _Man up! Don't go moping around! This is time to show those R, I mean, the Capitol that you're stronger than they are. Now is the time to bring some well-earned fame to District 2. _I sigh and smile. This is one of the few times that my real father, Ares, speaks to me.

I look down into my lap, where my hands are twitching anxiously. "I don't care," I mumble. "I'm probably the worst excuse child of Ares ever."

"What?" he asks.

"Nothing," I groan. I go up to him and hug him again. I wish he were my real father instead, even though he isn't the god of hugs. I just need something to keep me from what's happening. We just stay there in silence.

"I just want to say," he says, "even though I'm not your real father, I just want you to know that I feel like I'm your real father. I love you and I want you to be strong no matter what."

"Okay," I whisper. Guards then come in and take him away. I am surprised with one more visitor. John. My brother; a son of Ares.

He gets shoved through the door. The first thing he says is "This really stinks."

"You were really close with Elijah, right?" he asks.

"Yeah," I say. I sit down.

"Like I said earlier at camp, now is the time for you to get some honor to District 2. Just don't die, and you'll be fine," he tries to tell me words of encouragement, but it only makes it worse.

"And watch my brother die?" I ask. "I don't know which to pick. Honor for my District, my death, or his death."

"Just chill," John says. "You'll figure it out. Dad'll help you out." By now, his three minutes are up, and guards are coming in to collect him. I give him one last hug that lasts a millisecond and then he is gone.

"Tell the others I said bye!" I yell to him. Hopefully he interprets "others" as our two other brothers: the two other sons of Ares.

And now I wait. I wait in this room. It seems like nearly two hours beforethe person who did the reapings finally comes into the room where I am with my brother and three other guards.

"We have no time to waste," he says, and he takes my hand and drags me out of the room. "We've got to stick to a schedule!" he says. He drags me and Elijah outside to a Peacekeeper car, and we are immediately driven over to the train station.

There is a crowd of people there, guards, and civilians, watching, weeping, and looking serious. Oddly enough, there are also camera men. _Wait a minute. . . OH! I forgot. This is supposed to be a huge televised event! _A split second later, I officially decide that I am going to pull a deadly person type of angle until I enter the arena. I want to intimidate others, and to do it in front of a camera is the perfect opportunity.

I give a small smirk to the audience who is staring at my brother, the reaping dude, and myself being carted off to our deaths. _There! Let them figure out what that means! _

.


	4. I Almost Blow Elise's Cover

**YOU CAN KILL ME, TERRACE LILY AND ALL MY OTHER LOVING FANS WHO DON'T BOTHER TO REVIEW. JUST GIVE ME A MINUTE!**

**My long list of excuses for not updating:**

**I had auditions for The Legend of Pocahontas that were about an hour away from my house! I then had callbacks, and a read through. I got the part of Lady Margaret. What an awesome part :P And then it's Christmas (I got SO MANY B&N Giftcards and 5 pounds of butterfingers) . . So, yeah. THEN! I came up with this awesome plan for the whole story. *evil grin* It's going to be amazing. **

**TO THE POINT! Every three chapters, I'm going to change POVs between Elise and Elijah. ELIJAH'S TURN! :D**

**Disclaimer: Refer to chapters one or two, or maybe three. :) **

**PS, I'm kind of speeding things up a teeny bit. We want to get to the action in the arena, right? *Best Killing Buddies Finger Thingy* I have a LOT planned. **

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT AFTER THIS CHAPTER!**

_Ah, who cares. Might as well admit it now. I already know I'm going to die. My sister is a daughter of Ares. She apparently is murderous with a spear. I'm utterly doomed. I know. _All these crazy things are running through my head through the reapings, the visitings my parents gave me, and being dragged on a train to go off and die.

On a totally different tangent, I'm really surprised on how luxurious everything is on this stupid train. I know that it's the Capitol we're talking about, but we're eventually going to die, so why even bother? By the time we get on the train, it is probably around 8 P.M. I know, I'm being such a nerd. Going to bed at 8. As soon as I get on the train. Hey, I've had a big day, and also, I can't bear to see Elise right now. She already looks angry enough.

I'm weird like this: I sleep more when I'm anxious, so I am right off asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Of course my sleep is filled with weird dreams mixed in with a tad bit of nightmares, but I didn't really care and I forget them right after Mr. Reaping Man wakes me up, which just so happens to be 5 in the morning.

"Get up. We'll be at the Capitol soon!" he says excitingly. I groan, and I shove my covers over my head for a minute, but then I eventually shove them off myself and get up.

_Great. _I think. _I am still on a train. To my death._ On the positive side, I find out that breakfast is pretty freaking awesome. Along with all this gourmet stuff, we get coffee, something that me nor Elise had ever tasted before. I take the mug of coffee, and I bring it up to my lips, expecting something bitter, because that's how my dad says it tastes, but instead it is sweet. Chocolatey.

"Mmmm. What is this stuff? It's so awesome!" I say. Elise shoots me a glare. She isn't too happy about having to die and possibly killing me. What a surprise. She never sees anything positive.

"Oh, come on, Elijah, right?" Mr. Reaper says. "That's hot chocolate! You've never had it before?" he says as if it's something they have every day in the Capitol.

"We have better stuff to do with the small amounts of money we do get," Elise says, and glares at him. I can tell she's not in a good mood.

"Might as well enjoy it while we can," I mumble. She rolls her eyes, and we eat the rest of the meal in silence.

About 10 minutes after breakfast, we're arriving at the Capitol. District 2 is right next to the Capitol, so it only took about a 9 hour train ride there. The man who did the reapings introduces himself. "I'm Louis Czerniejewski, I don't think I ever introduced myself!" He says.

"Che-nen-ski. . ."I try and pronounce. "How do you spell that?" I ask him.

"C-z-e-r-n-i-e-j-e-w-s-k-i," he replies with a smile.

"C-z-r-e-y-n-j-w-s-k-i," Elise tries to repeat.

"Close." He smiles.

"I'm going to be your mentor during the games," he says. "I will be controlling all the sponsors that come in, and I'll also give you advice and help you go through training."

"Okay," my sister says slowly. Silence.

"You can just call me Louis," he says.

More silence. He continues. "You guys are going to a remake center to meet stylists. You want to be presentable for the opening ceremony, right?

"Right. . ." I say. _Stylist? Even for us guys? Weird. . . ._

"A word of advice, no matter what they do to you, just go with it," he says. "They're going to do some crazy stuff to you!" he does some sort of crazy laugh.

"Why the heck are they going to need a stylist for us guys?" I tell him.

"I actually don't know," Louis shrugs.

"They want to make sure we're pretty," I say to myself. I have no idea what is about to come, and I am not prepared to be dressed up like a doll.

The remake center is huge. Actually, it's about 12 stories high, and I later find out that each district's tributes get one floor.

The first thing I hear is a scream. I jerk my head around and I see two boys and a girl. "Hon, your eyebrows!" the woman shrieks.

"Wait, what?" I ask.

"Your eyebrows! This is a national emergency!" she says, looking like she's about to faint.

"Chill out. We should probably introduce ourselves," says one of the men. "I am Emile, and this is Gavin," he points to the other man.

"Yes, and I am Oceana!" says the woman. "We're your prep team! We're going to make you look pretty for the games! But for now, just the opening ceremonies!"

What do you know? a couple of hours later, I find myself in a Peacekeeper outfit. I have just undergone the whole styling process with a lot of real awkward moments for me, and I have come out looking like a totally different person.

My stylist said that we wanted the people to know that we're from District 2, so she decided that we were going to be dressed up in Peacekeeper uniforms. They styled the suits up a bit to make them not look as ugly. But the fabric seemed to shine in the dark and the outfit kind of shimmered and was a light silver color. Instead of pants, my sister wore a pleated white skirt that was a bit glittery and knee-high white combat boots.

_So, _I think. _Jazzed up Peacekeeper outfits. We're going to own this. Totally._

I knew that the girly side of my sister would like it, but I didn't like it. I felt like a pig being pampered for slaughter. There was a gut feeling in my stomach, but I really tried to be happy because my sister was in a bad mood.

Louis then leads us over to a chariot in the long row of the 12 chariots that are going to take the tributes through the opening ceremony. We are second in line. I guess that they put us in order of district.

"You look nervous," I tell Elise as we step into the chariot.

She glares at me. "I guess I feel angry that all of this is happening." I nod. "I mean, we're both basically going to die. Might as well admit that now."

"Remember! Show honor and pride to your district!" I say to her, just like our old teacher did. She laughs, and before I even notice, our chariot starts moving, and we are plunged into a street full of screaming cheering people on the sidelines. I try and smile and wave to everybody, but it's all fake. I'm starting to hate these people as well, which is not like me. They're making my sister and I die. I don't hate people generally, but hopefully you can understand my feelings.

After about 20 minutes, we arrive at the City Circle, and President Justice gives us the welcoming speech. "Welcome. And happy Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor." _May the odds be ever in your favor. Yes. We get it. New trademark punchline of The Hunger Games. Cut it out already. _I zone out the rest of his speech, and then we are taken to the training center.

When we arrive at the Training Center, I find out that we're going to be on the second floor, so Elise, Louis, and I take the elevator up one floor.

"Gosh, these Capitol people are so lazy. We're going up ONE floor, and they can't put in stairs?"

Elise smiles, and I know that I'm kind of lifting her spirits up. Louis frowns. Oops. Forgot he was here!

Dinner that night is pretty uneventful. There was lamb stew with dried plums over wild rice. Louis tells us that the next day we will have training sessions. "You'll be able to practice and learn something that you don't know. Most importantly, you can learn some survival skills."

Elise and I nod.

"Is there something that each of you can do especially well?" Louis asks.

I immediately blurt out, "Elise can mutilate with a spear!"

Louis looks confused for a moment, then he says, "How? I thought the Peacekeepers used guns and whips." He does his crazy laughing to himself. Elise is brick-red.

"I-I-I. . . " she stammers. _Crud!_ I think to myself. _I almost blew her cover!_

There's an awkward silence until I say "I'm pretty okay with a hunting knife!" I guess everybody forgot about my slip-up, and we continue with dinner without mentioning it. After dinner, I am exhausted from the huge day. I go into my room and plop down on my bed and immediately fell asleep. Guess it's the nerves.

**PEACE OUT, MY SLAVES. I FREAKING LOVE YOU GUYS! **

**Yes, in case you didn't notice and just randomly decided to re-read my story, these chapters are. . . being revised? YES! :D 16 might take another few days. Need to tweak stuff up in the chapters I have here, and finish writing that, and then revise it and not make it crappy, get the thumbs up from Leumer and Anastasia Laurels, and such. Then you get it. Now, keep reading. AND! Review:D **

**REVIEW AND I SHALL BE HAPPY. :D **


	5. I Play With Swords

**I was supposed to update this on Monday! I HAD THIS ALL READY MONDAY! Fanfiction is being stupid and I can't login! (Well, if you're reading this, then I've fixed it. :P :P :P)**

**I have LOTS of plans. http:/ www. flickr .com/ photos/ 73821736N04/ 6654938073/ in/ photostream/ lightbox/ (remove spaces) ^_^ Unfortunately, it's too blurry for anyone to read :D THIS is what I've been doing over the month that I didn't update.**

**Disclaimer: (Hope you don't mind this recycled one) **

**Me: Can I have a cheeseburger, a small fry and a large chocolate milkshake?**

**Laurels (My BFF): Yes. Anything else?**

**Me: The rights to Percy Jackson & the Olympians would be nice. . . **

**Laurels: What? You can't have that!**

**Me: Fine. Can I have the rights to the Hunger Games?**

**Laurels: NO.**

**Me: FINE! I'll see if Burger King can get me them!**

**Elijah**

After breakfast the next morning, Elise and I are headed off to training. We get to take the lazy-man's elevator again, down to the very bottom of the training center. I'm guessing we're about 20 stories below ground. "Wait, how would I know that?" I ask myself.

"Know what?" Asks I guess I said that aloud.

"It's nothing," I say.

The official training room is pretty awesome. There's survival stations everywhere. _Go intimidate the other players _Louis told us. _With what? Being crummy at knife throwing? _I told him. He groaned.

"Hello. I am the main supervisor of the training center," says a woman, once we are all down there and all rounded up. "Just a couple of rules. No fighting. You'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. Don't leave this room without permission. Other than that . . . I think we're covered," she says. "Go ahead."  
>Elise went immediately to the spear-throwing station. She got every dummy straight in the heart, and I could see the wrath of Ares in her. The station manager gave her flying targets, but she hit those almost perfectly almost every time.<p>

I find that there is a knife and sword fighting station next to where my sister was. "Oh, what the hey," I say, and I go try out fighting with a sword. There's three other tributes learning here, and they're all significantly better than I will ever be.

"Do you want to pick out a sword?" says the trainer.

"Uh, sure," I say. I go in the back and I look through the wide selection of swords. I want to try something new. This room here in the back has all kinds of weapons. Most of them are just normal steel, but one especially stood out to me. It was a solid-gold one with wicked sharp edges. I picked it up, and it seemed perfect in my hands. "Now this is cool!" I say.

I bring the sword, and I notice that it seems perfectly balanced on my hands, outside of the back room, and I ask the person in charge of the station if there was someone I could practice with.

"Sure there is," he says. "Jenna! Get over here!" he barks. A girl, about sixteen, comes out of another room in the back. She has short black hair, and blue eyes. She's carrying a sword of her own, and doesn't seem to have any protection or armor on.

"Don't worry, she has full-body armor on, so she won't be hurt if you happen to be especially good at this," he says.  
>"What about me?" I ask. "What if she stabs me in the gut and I die and you Capitol people have to reap another dude?"<p>

Jenna smiles.

"She won't do that to you. She's only allowed to defend herself," the man attending the station says.

"Okay then. I'm just a beginner. Any tips?" I ask. He gives me a couple of tips, and I try fighting with a sword for the first time.

I think I did okay-ish. Maybe. The first thing I did was almost cut my leg off, because Jenna dodged a hit that should've killed her if she didn't dodge it and wasn't wearing magical invisible full body armor.

I eventually get somewhat better. I stink at using the sword, but the sword is pretty awesome. I keep on practicing until I become almost good. I soon find out that I've been practicing the whole morning, and we are called to lunch.

I sit next to Elise, who seems to have made friends with Districts 1 and 4.

"It seems like you've made friends," I tell her. I sit down at the large table where Elise and her new friends are sitting at, and I take note that nobody else sits here.

"Is it true you guys are real brother and sister?" asks the District 1 female, who introduces herself as Crystal.

Well, I guess we're not _real _brother and sister, but I end up replying, "Yeah. Odds weren't really in our favor?" I try to laugh, but my efforts seem fake.  
>Crystal seems like a total girly-girl blonde stereotype, with a dark tan, wavy blond hair and ice blue eyes, but from what Elise tells me, she's murderous when it comes to fighting. Apparently she's amazing with a hunting knife, but even better with a bow and arrow. She looks only to be about thirteen.<p>

The other tributes we're sitting with introduce themselves as well. "I'm Fish," says the District 4 male. He has messy blonde hair and sea green eyes, like his fellow District 4 tribute. That's kind of what most of the people there look like. I'm guessing he's around 16 years old.

"Haha! Nice name," I laugh.

"I'm Sadie. I'm twelve," says the District 4 female tribute.

"Same here," I sigh. "So much fun. The good always die young." The table laughs, and I think that we might end up being allies.

"Well, I think that we're going to be among the last to die," Crystal says. "I mean, I don't know about you, but it seems like we've all been waiting for that moment to honor our district for our entire lives. I mean, in District 2, you're trained to be Peacekeepers. In District 4, you guys hunt fish. And here in District 1, we did everything we could to please the Capitol. I'm just thinking we all had a head start on this training business."

"Yeah," says Fish.

"I'm Elise, and this is Elijah," my sister says.

"Allies?" asks the District 1 Male, who Elise says is named Diamond. (Oh, the things they name their kids in District 1.)

"Sure," we all agree. I can see that the other 18 tributes are staring at us.

"We're doomed," one says.

"They're all murderous!" another one says.

"It's like it's their career to kill people!"

"Well, it kind of is for those district two kids," the person who said that nudges the person beside him.

"Murderous?" I say to the table. "Haha, that's the strangest complement I've ever had. In case you didn't notice, I stink at using a sword."

"No you don't!" says Crystal, "I saw you. You were pretty good. It's just that Avox girl, Jenna is _really_ good."  
>I remind myself to ask Elise what an Avox is.<p>

Training the rest of the afternoon consists of me learning a lot of survival techniques. I learn how to tie knots with Fish mainly teaching me because his family makes nets, and he's amazing. I also look at the station where they tell you what kind of berries and wilderness stuff is edible.

"This is what they call nightlock," the instructor says. He holds out a couple of dark purple berries. "It's deadly poisonous, and you'll be dead before it gets to your stomach."

Note to self: don't eat the nightlock.

After training, we are sent back up to our quarters to have dinner. "We made a couple of friends," Elise says over dinner.

"Who?" asks Louis.

"Districts One and Four."

"That District One Female-

"Crystal," Elise butts in.

"Crystal," Louis continues. "She seems to be one of those types who seem really friendly, but you're going to get a knife in your back."

"I'll take that into advice," Elise says. She stares at her soup. It seemed like she got kind of close with her.

"The other mentors and tributes are nicknaming your alliance the Career Pack," Louis says.

"Where'd someone get a name like that?" Elise asks.

"Someone at Lunch said it was basically our career to kill people. It's like we've been training this for our whole lives," I explain.

"Which I- I mean, we have." Whoops. Almost another slip-up. Louis doesn't seem to notice that, though.

After two more days of training, I find myself to be pretty awesome at swordplay. I'm now better than Jenna. (I asked Elise what an Avox was and she said that I didn't want to know. . . All I know is that they can't talk.)

We are supposed to go into a private session with the game makers. Elise explains it all to me. "We're supposed to go in there and show off all your moves, and they give you a score between 1 and 12, with one being the worst."

"Okay. So you can go be a ninja with a spear and I can try hacking around with a sword. Great."

"Elijah! You're actually pretty good swordplay."

"I know," I smile. "I just wanted you to admit that I'm good!" I laugh, and Elise glares at me.

So all 24 of us are cooped up in a room next to the training room to wait to be tested by these game maker people. It's kind of comfy in there, but luckily Elise and I are among the first to go.

Crystal is called. . . Ten minutes later, Diamond, and then Elise. "Good luck," I say as I hug her. "Go show them your ninja moves with that spear of yours." She hugs me back, and then walks into the room to be judged.

Five minutes later, I am called in to be judged. I pull myself together, and I walk into the room.

**There, there. I gave you a super-long chapter. I really need some reviews, otherwise Thursday might come a tad bit late . . . . Who knows?**


	6. Neither Can Live While The Othr Survives

**Disclaimer: When I get the rights to the stories that I'm using, I'll just not put a disclaimer :) **

I look around the large training room, and the first thing I see is a table full of serious-looking game makers up in the game maker's balcony. All of them are staring at me, and I have no clue what to do. "You may start," one of them calls down to me.

I gulp. I remember everything Louis told me. _Now is the time to show them you're a killing machine. You're from District 2, right? Yeah, _I replied.

I go over to the room where the swords were. I made the big journey over displays of all kinds of swords all the way to the back of the room, and I grabbed the golden, wickedly sharp sword that I always used: the one that is always somewhere in the back.

I come back, and I see that some of the Game makers aren't looking at me anymore, and some of them are going through the line in the I slowly walk over to a blue foam dummy standing up. I grew a sudden interest in my feet.

_Come on, Elijah! You have to do this!_ I raise the sword, and I look back over to see one of them smiling at me.

I then swing the sword, and I slice the dummy's head clean off. I take a deep breath, then basically start attacking the dummy with slices, stabs, until I break into a sweat. After the dummy looks like dummy guts, I stop and take a deep breath.

"You may be dismissed," says one of the game makers.

• •

Five hours later, Elise, Louis and I are plopped in front of the TV in our quarters, getting ready to see our scores from the game maker's evaluations.

"I did horrible. They'll probably give me a 1!" Elise says, biting her fingernails.

"What did you do? I mutilated a dummy with a sword," I tell her.

"I mutilated a bunch of dummies with a spear. I tried doing some throws, and I missed the targets twice. I was terrible. I just hope A- I mean, dad was watching," she says as she sighs.

Louis looks confused. "Nobody but the tribute and the game makers can see what happened," he says.

Elise turns red. She's almost ratted out. "Uh. . . um. . . I meant, you know. . ." she stammers.

"Look! They're showing the scores," I say and I point to the TV. They show Diamond, who got a nine. Crystal got a ten.

I can see Elise is holding her breath. She's next. She's trembling from head to toe.

They show a picture of Elise, and below, a bright 10 shows beneath her.

There's half a second of excited screaming, and then they show an 8 under a picture of me.

"I told you you were going to be great!" I say to Elise as I hug her.

We watch more scores go by: a six, a four, another six, a two, a seven. . .

What I found interesting was that nobody out of our "Career Pack" got higher than a seven, and we averaged from an eight to a ten. "Did anyone else notice that nobody out of the career pack got anything more than a seven?"

"Good, good," Louis says.

"Just good? I got the best score!" Elise says.

"I mean, you're really going to intimidate the other tributes. They're already under the impression you two are killing machines, might as well go with that angle."

"I'm not a killing machine!" I tell Elise.

"Then how the heck did you get that eight?" she says back.

"Magic," I say sarcastically.

• • •

The next day, I am pampered for slaughter again. But this time, not necessarily slaughter. This time, I get an interview with the magical interviewer Caesar Flickerman. They put me under the beauty process for my interview. Louis has been coaching me on exactly what to say and do, but I find it kind of silly.

After hours of training on exactly what to say and what to do, and being pampered for slaughter and being dressed up in a fun suit that's black with a light green polo shirt, I am shoveled off into line for interviews.

First up is Crystal. You can totally guess her angle: Desirable. Just because she's thirteen doesn't excuse the fact that she's charming the audience with everything she says and does makes her seem attractive. Her girly hot-pink dress only adds to the factor.

Diamond definitely seems to be going with the witty and sarcastic. Everything he says gets a laugh or at least a smile from the audience.

Up next is Elise, because she goes before me during the interviews. She does fine. . . Most of the time. There's one question that catches her off guard.

"Looking back on those replays of the reapings, it doesn't seem like we know what was going through your head when your brother got chosen," Caesar Flickerman says. "What was going through your head?"

_Ares, _I say in my head. _Just please. Help her out. _I hope he has time to listen to a mortal like me.

She is caught off guard for a moment, but then continues. " First, I kind of felt shocked that I was picked. But then, um, well, I guess I didn't believe at first that my brother's name was drawn," she says. A moment of silence, then she continues. "It's still hard to believe that we're in the Capitol, and all this stuff is happening to us."

The interviewer then changes the subject and asks what her favorite thing to do in the Capitol is.

A few minutes later, I find myself on camera in front of thousands of people, shaking Caesar Flickman's hand. All this happened way too fast.

Caesar Flickman, he's an odd man. He looks to be about 17 or 18, has absolutely CRAZY hair that makes him look like he's wearing a bump-it, and it looks like he's been surgically altered to be pale.

"Elijah, right?" he asks.

"Yes," I reply. Louis said to take out the funny side of myself and act all serious. It's pretty hard for me, but I accepted the challenge. I made myself look like a killing machine.

"So you think you'd ever be able to go to the Capitol?" Caesar says.

"Actually, no. I haven't even dreamt about it. I knew it was never going to happen!" I say.

"What were you thinking when your name was drawn?" He then asks.

I close my eyes for a second and collect my thoughts. "I guess exactly what Elise said. We need to show honor to District 2. It's actually kind of amazing that we're both here. We're going to show what we can do."

He doesn't mention that one of us is going to have to die. Neither of us can live while the other one course I know that joyful little fact, though.

"What was your favorite thing so far here?" he says.

"Everything," I immediately reply.

By now, my three minutes are up, and I go back to my seat. I am in a faze of shock from being in front of all of those people and the fact that I have just been interviewed, which I never ever guessed was going to happen to me. I kind of zone out the following 20 interviews and before I can even realize what's happening, they're over.

Now that the interviews are over, we are taken back to the training center. Louis is really oblivious and doesn't ask why we're not going to eat dinner. I creep off silently into my room unnoticed.

I take a moment to really appreciate all I have left. I have my sister. I have this nice room, with this nice bed, and this nice shower. I have waiters who will do whatever I want them to do and fetch whatever I want them to fetch. And then tomorrow, I will be thrown into an arena so I can kill other people and probably die. All this will end tomorrow.

_A nice shower. _I'm thinking again. A smile slowly creeps upon my face. _Maybe breaking the Capitol's water bill will be some sort of payback for my death. _I head over into my bathroom and strip down, and turn on the water.

"But don't forget, Elijah! Showing honor to District 2 is the most important thing!" I say aloud.

Maybe taking the longest shower ever will annoy the heck out of the Capitol people. Maybe they'll come in and kick me out. But for now, I'm just seeing how long it takes for something to happen.

At home, I always loved long showers. Like, really really long showers, but we could never afford more than five minutes per person every day. Mom or Dad would always yell to me, saying "Hurry up! Five minutes is over!" but now, I am in the shower till almost midnight.

My skin is all wrinkly and I joke to myself that I am old. "I guess I'm not good anymore, because the good always die young. Now I'm old!" I say, looking at a clock that reads 11:54. This means that I have been in the shower for about four hours or so. That'll totally show the Capitol.

I change into PJs that have been left out for me, and I realize that I am really grateful that I sleep more when I'm nervous. _Shoot. You should've gotten out earlier. You would've been asleep in a moment! _I think to myself as I crawl under the sheets, and fall asleep instantly.

"ELIJAH! GET UP!" Louis calls to me.

"UGHHAAAAHHHH" I yell back.

"UP!" He calls.

"BLEEGHHEHHH" I reply as I sit up. I barely have time to change before Elise and I are dragged onto a helicopter to go to the Arena.

"Any advice?" I ask Louis as we take off for the Arena.

"Stay alive," he says, as if he's required to say that.

"Great. Thanks. Anything else?" Elise asks.

"Throw yourselves into the thick of things. I know that you'll get out of that alive, and nobody will get anything if you and your career friends are there," he replies.

"What the heck do you mean by that?" I ask him.

"You'll see when you get in the Arena," he smiles. Now he leaves us.

A woman in a white labcoat now comes in with a giant scary-looking needle that looks really painful. "Hold out your arm," she says to Elise. She reluctantly holds out her arm. She plunges the needle into her arm, and she jumps.

"Hold out your arm," she now tells me.

"Why?" I ask.

"Hold out your arm!" she says. I sheepishly hold it out, and she plunges another big, scary, painful looking needle into my totally unprepared arm. It hurts. It hurts like crazy.

"Owww!" I say when she takes the needle out. "What was that for?" I ask.

"That was your tracker. Now the game makers know where you are at all times," she says.

"Because you guys obviously wouldn't want to lose a tribute," I tell her. I see a small smile creep up on her face, and then she leaves.

By now, the windows are going black. This probably means that we are almost at the Arena.

Next thing I know, I am in the launch room. My stylist, whose name is Spenser, comes to comfort me.

"You want anything to eat?" he asks.

"Of course, yes! Isn't this the Hunger Games?" I ask. "It's called the Hunger Games for a reason, right?"

"Well, I see your point. Go ahead. Dig in. But, hurry up. Also, don't eat too fast. You might puke." I smile, and then I dig in. I also drink a lot of water, because they might not have that either in the arena.

When Spenser finally calls me over, he helps me get dressed in a plain black T-shirt, tucked in with a belt into black pants with lots of pockets. My shoes are knee-high black combat boots. "I think the game makers like the color black," I say. Spenser smiles.

"Sixty seconds," a voice from no where says. I look over and I see a tube that's probably my launching tube.

"Look," Spenser says. "You'll do fine. I know you will."

"Okay," I say.

"Thirty seconds," says the voice from no where.

"You'd better get going," he says. He gives me a hug, and then I go over to the launch pad.

"Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen," the voice from nowhere starts.

I look back at Spenser one last time, and he gives me two thumbs up.

"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

The launch pad is now moving up. Moving up ever so slowly. Then, it starts getting faster and faster until I see daylight again an am blinded.

I am in the Arena.

Good thing I thought before I died.

**REVIEW PEOPLE. I was looking at traffic, and only two people have reviewed this story, which kind of makes me want to puke.**

**Do I have to beg for reviews? I am asking for at least five reviews before the next chapter is posted. I know, I know, I'm being a review terrorist, but I seriously NEED REVIEWS! Five reviews total. COME ON! My most popular story has 138!**

**Please? **


	7. The Bloodbath Gets Its Name

**YAYYY I am so excited! We're finally at the Arena! :D :D I HAVE SOOO MANY AWESOME PLANS FOR THIS STORY!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned THG or PJO, then THG Movie and SoM Movie would come out right now. ^_^**

**This super long very very early chapter is my way of asking for reviews :D Please. I love you guys.**

**On that note, I would like to establish how FREAKING AWESOME fieldhockyisamazin is! *Gives virtual hug* YOU MAKE ME FEEL SOOO SPECIAL!**

**Elise**

Poor District 10 Male. He was too anxious and goes straight for the golden horn full of goodies in the middle of the circle of tributes. And gets blown up in the process. I can see that Elijah and some other people almost went for the horn, but only the District 10 Male died.

I think we all get that we're supposed to wait until they release us, so I take note of where I am. 50 yards ahead of me, there is a giant golden horn on an island with food, water, and weapons. Around me is a large, circular lake that stretches out 10 yards behind everybody. Past the lake is a giant field of green grass that seems to stretch on forever.

Are we going to be released? I think. Might as well be prepared. I get ready to dive into the water and swim to the giant horn. A couple of seconds later, a gong rings, and I'm guessing this means we're released.

I dive into the water, and start swimming toward the horn as fast as I can, knowing full well that Fish and Sadie will get there first. They swim like kids of Poseidon. And they do get there first. Luckily, we're in an alliance, so they don't kill me when I step up on the small island that holds the bits and pieces needed for survival.

I look around in the horn for weapons, and I see the sword that Elijah was practicing with so much. I dig it out, and I also find a spear. I turn around and the first thing I see see a giant bloody battle, and Elijah running toward me. This probably is what Louis meant by throwing myself into the thick of things. I just hope I don't die in the process.

"Here you go!" I yell over the clank of weapons. I chuck the sword at Elijah, and he catches it.

"Come on, let's help out Fish, Sadie, Diamond and Crystal!" He shouts back. Okay, Elise. You can do this. It's just. . . people. Show honor to your district, right? Help me out here, Ares! I step in, and throw myself in the thick of things like Louis told me to do.

It seems that District 6, 7, and 8 have made an alliance of their own, and are crowding in on us. I fight them back, and try and not remember that they're humans.

I'm currently fighting the District 7 Female, who has salvaged a knife from the cornucopia, isn't that what the ginormous horn called?

Yes, so I jab around and go easy on her, and I end up letting my guard down too much, because her fellow District 7 tribute comes and slices a nice gash on my shoulder blade. I subconsciously turn around, and then stab him in the leg, and then push him off the Island and into the water.

I turn and almost get the District 7 female, but I get her in the lower leg, and not as deep. She grabs a loaf of bread and jumps into the water to try and save her fellow tribute, but he bobs back up dead. She just leaves him alone and flees with the District 6 female, who's fellow tribute Elijah just killed as well.

I then go rummaging in the cornucopia for a first aid kit for my shoulder. If only there was some Apollo kid here! They'd know what to do! But then again, I highly doubt that there's anything demigodish here when it comes to terms of healing. I think. It takes me a few minutes to find an ACE bandage, and I wrap it up in my shoulder to stop the bleeding, just as I remember the Apollo kids doing it.

"Elise! Get over here!" Elijah yells. District 11 is crowding in on him. They immediately turn around. One of them has a bow and arrow and the other a spear. The male throws his spear at me, and I dodge it, and run back to pick it up. I now have two, and chuck one back at the male, who gets impaled in the abdomen. He falls down over, and District 11 Female bends over at him and pulls the spear out. He is dead.

I take this time to throw my second spear at her. I don't know what happens, or if she dies, but I go over to help Elijah and Fish after retrieving another spear.

"Diamond!" Crystal screams, who is 30 feet away from me. Someone shot him with a bow and arrow, and it looks like he's going to die. I run over there, with Crystal panting. I think that they knew each other, because most of the tributes don't care about each other.

I keep watch while Crystal watches Diamond slowly bleed to death, but nothing more comes our way.

"He's dead," she says.

We keep fighting and fending off other tributes, but nobody else in our alliance dies. District 3 puts up a very good fight at the end, but Crystal finishes both of them off because the Male shot the arrow at Diamond.

After what seems like an hour of fighting, everyone had cleared off with about half of the stuff, and all that is left is my Career buddies and I. The fighting is done here at the Cornucopia. "Man, there's so much blood here!" Elijah says, trying to step over the blood puddles, with supplies full in his hands. "You could fill a bath tub!"

"Elijah!" I yell at him. I almost drop the containers of water I'm carrying. Ever so conveniently, the lake was salt water, so everybody out of the Career Pack, as we've been named, has to go find water themselves, because we managed to get all the water available.

"It's like. . . a bloodbath!" he says. Just then, a canon starts firing. It fires invisible canon balls one, two, three, four. . . . eleven times.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"I think it's how many tributes died," says Sadie, who's counting the bodies.

I set the water containers down, and I jump into the lake. Unfortunately, we have to transfer everything to land by hand. Luckily, the water's only about 5 feet 6 inches deep. I grab the containers, and then I have to walk the whole 50 yards to shore with everything but my head under water.

"That should be the official name for this fight: the Bloodbath!" Fish says. He smiles.

After we transfer everything to land, we come up with what to do.

"Since there's all this stuff we have, everyone's going to think we're just going to stay here because we don't want to move it. I vote we pack everything up in these giant mother backpacking bags the Game makers have put here and move somewhere else." Sadie suggests. Now she's acting like a daughter of Poseidon and Athena.

"This is a lot of stuff," Crystal points out. It is. We all have hunting knives. I have my spear, Elijah his sword, and Fish managed to find a trident. Crystal has a bow and arrow, and Sadie has a freakishly awesome axe.

Along with this, we have a heck-load of food consisting of bread, fruit, and vegetables. We also have about four gallons of water. We have first aid supplies, matches, five sleeping bags, five heavy duty coats, and a tent that fits six.

"I think we can move all this stuff," I say. We then begin to divide up the load among ourselves, with the girls taking the huge packs and stuffing food, first aid, and other miscellaneous stuff. Elijah takes our water and Fish our tent.

We then begin to hike. The cornucopia and the lake seem to get smaller and before you know it, it's just fields and fields of nothing but grass and blue sky for about ten minutes.

"What the heck is that?" Elijah yells. He sets down water, and then points ahead. I was thinking about other stuff, and I didn't notice it, but 100 yards ahead of us is a line of trees. Just a long, straight line of trees that I'm guessing are woods.

We all are kind of tired, and my shoulder wound is killing, but we all hike a bit faster to get to these woods that offer some sort of protection.

"Isn't it weird that there's just a straight line of woods here? I thought those fields would go on forever," says Fish.

"So what? We can go another mile. At least, I think it was a mile from here to the Cornucopia," Sadie says.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm whooped!" Elijah says.

"Great. Then you can make it another mile," I say. I then keep walking ahead, with the others close behind me.

We're slowing down from all the walking, so it takes us another fifteen minutes to walk the next mile through the heavy woods.

"I don't see anything, and I swear it's been two!" Elijah says. He groans, and about a minute later, we see another dramatic landscape change.

"Desert?" Crystal asks.

"Yup," I say. There's another sharp line that separates landscape. I step onto the warm sand, and the temperature seems to dramatically increase. It is HOT.

"Holy moly," I say, then step back into the woods.

"I vote we pitch camp somewhere and have lunch," Fish says. "Looking up at the sun, it looks to be about 3 o' clock in the afternoon. Then maybe we can go hunting and knock some other tributes out of the way."

"I like that idea," I reply. We end up going back some into the woods, and we set up a tent. We don't dare make a fire now, so we just munch on bread and strawberries for lunch.

Half way through lunch, things start to get interesting. We hear someone step on a twig, and it breaks. Someone is spying on us. I immediately get up, grab my spear, and go investigate with Crystal, who has her bow and arrow.

15 yards away from us is a boy who looks to be about 17 years old. Before we can do anything, Crystal shoots him in the neck, and he drops down dead. I have to say, I am a little creeped out by that. Who are you kidding, Elise? You're supposed to be like that. Kill everyone you see out of your alliance!

"Wait!" somebody screams. A girl, who looks to be about 18, comes out from behind a tree.

"Don't," I tell Crystal. She lowers her bow and listens to what he have to say.

The 18 year old girl gulps as if we're going to kill her. She slowly starts, and says "We. . . well, now I, want to make an alliance."

**CLIFFIE:D**

**A nice thing to do would be reviewing :D**


	8. I Go Into Shock Twice in Twenty Minutes

**:D Have the song from the Hunger Games Trailer playing on repeat. TOTALLY PUMPED! LET'S DO THIS! (Search up The Hunger Games Deep Shadows on youtube, click the first link. It's amazing.)**

**Disclaimer: *sarcasm* Oh, yes. I _totally _own the rights to PJO and THG. Yup. That's me! :D **

"Alliance?" Crystal yells back. The girl hiding behind the tree walks closer to us, and I recognize her as being the female tribute from District 8. She runs closer. Crystal arms her bow and arrow again.

"Yes. I say that you make an alliance with me. I'll guard your camp when you're away, in exchange for food," she says.

"How do we know we can trust you?" I ask.

"Because you guys have weapons that can kill someone in an instant. I have a blowdart gun and a knife," she says.

She walks even closer to us.

"Aren't you already in an alliance?" Elijah asks. I jump. He just popped out of nowhere behind us.

"I was," she continues. She steps even closer to us. "With Districts 6, 7, and Nevan, who you just killed. I know where their base is. They kicked Nevan and I out to go find out where you guys are, but we decided to break off from them. We knew we would eventually get a knife in the back." _And you're not going to get a knife in the back with us? _I wonder.

"We could do with getting rid of some of the other tributes," says Fish. He sighs.

"What the hey. We could kill her in an instant if she does anything. I vote yes," Sadie says.

Crystal, Fish, and Elijah agrees, so obviously, I have to agree as well. We let her come to our camp. We give her a water bottle and a couple slices of bread.

"I'm Yael," she says.

"How the heck do you spell that?" Elijah asks. "Y-I-E-L? That's how it sounds."

"No, Y-A-E-L. We all have interesting names in District 8. Nevan, Yael. You know, the works."

"So where is base for Districts 6 and 7?" I ask her. We're still finishing up lunch.

"The snowy hills," she replies.

"So, I'm guessing that you've noticed that the landscape changes every mile or so?" I ask.

She starts explaining everything. "Yes. Since we only had a few stuff, we fled the Cornucopia-"

"I call it the bloodbath!" Elijah butts in. I glare at him. He shuts up.

"The bloodbath, then. So we ran a mile, hit the woods, ran another mile, and hit the desert. It was torture, but we knew that most people wouldn't have wanted to cross it, so we made it across and pitched camp right on the border of the snowy hills and the desert, so the temperature isn't that bad, but everyone's crazy with shock." she explains.

"That's not a real good idea," says Fish.

"The ladies from 6 and 7 are kind of thick headed," she says.

"They were basically the boss of the alliance. They had more weapons than Yael and I, so we couldn't do anything," She explains.

"Well, we now have to feed six. We're eventually going to run out of food. I say that we go gather edible plants," I say. I don't really care if anyone comes along, I just want some time to myself.

"You can go if you want to," Sadie says.

"Fine," I say. "I'll be back in a while. I might take some time."

"Guys, how 'bout we go hunting?" Fish asks. Sounds of agreement ring through the group, and they get ready to go off.

"Yael. You watch our camp. Anything happens, well, don't let anything happen," Crystal says. It's actually kind of funny, watching a thirteen year old boss around an eighteen year old. I silently snicker to myself.

"I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel like going through the desert. We can get those girls from 6 and 7 later," Sadie says as they start off.

I then go in the opposite direction. Luckily, I was one of the few who went to the edible plants and berries station in training, but that didn't matter. I brought a water bottle and went straight towards the desert. _You're really in for it now, _I think. I then start running into the hot desert, trying to pace myself as much as I can.

I know perfectly well that you can't find berries in the desert. I just wanted to check out the other alliance's base. Maybe see what their weaknesses might be. Spy on them. It was probably a stupid idea, but my logic was that it would keep the audience entertained for maybe a while. Maybe then the Game Makers won't have to play around making something entertaining.

The desert is dry, blazing hot, and never ending. At least I have a water bottle, but taking small sips doesn't really help.

I know that children of Ares aren't the acting type, but when I see snowy hills in the distance, I try to think how I can make this interesting for the audience. As I approach the border, I try to make myself not seen, but black pants with lots of pockets, a black t-shirt, and knee-high black boots aren't the best for sneaking around in broad daylight.

First of all, the ladies from District 6 and 7 aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, as Yael recently said. They built a _fire. _A fire. Knowing full well that my career buddies could be hunting them any minute, but I know they went off through the woods. From what I could see, they had a bright orange backpack and two hunting knives. They probably had more weapons than that from what Yael said, but that doesn't matter right now.

I head straight to my left and try and cross the border without them seeing me. I go into shock at how cold it is, and my body isn't liking the temperature change, but I try and creep closer to them, with the hills hiding me. It's freezing cold and I really wish I had brought one of our jackets, but I suck it up, grit my teeth, and creep closer, shivering.

"That girl from District 2, don't you hate her?" says one of them. They are 15 feet away from me, and I am concealed behind a hill full of snow.

_They hate me?_

"She was the one who killed Austin. Totally," says the other one, whom I'm guessing is the District 7 girl.

"I wonder where the Career camp is, Alana," says District 6, which means District 7 is Alana.

"They're probably somewhere near the border of the woods and desert. With all that stuff, they're probably not going to want to lug it across the desert just to find out what's here."

"Well, what about the meadow?"

"That's a vulnerable spot. They're smarter than that."

"I vote when Yael and Nevan come back, we go find out where the Career Pack's camp is. We should attack them early tomorrow, when they're most vulnerable."

"Yes. We should get ready to leave when Yael and Nevan come back."

"Wait a minute, where would they be in the woods?"

"A mile away! They're following us because they want to kill us! We're going to get to them first!"

Maybe it was a good idea to go spy on their camp, but I was still frozen to the bone. Anyway, I went back about another fifty yards away from them, still keeping an eye on the border. When I felt as if I was far away enough from them, I bolted to the border, my body feeling like a frozen popsicle.

It was really creative of the game makers, putting the snowy hills right next to the desert. I come to the border, and I know that I'll go into shock again for the second time in twenty minutes. I step across the border, and I start to feel dizzy it's so hot. I take a couple sips of water and buck up, and start running away from the snowy hills as fast as I can.

I go into a subconscious state of continuous running. I sip some water as I go, but I don't stop until I see a line of green in the distance. By now I've slowed down a lot, and the run towards the border is treacherous. It seems to never get closer, but then suddenly I find myself back into the woods.

It takes all of my will not to plop down and chug all the water I can, but I keep going, as dizzy as ever, and I mill around until I stumble into camp.

"Ugahhh!" I say.

"What happened, Elise?" asks Elijah. I plop down next to him, who is sitting next to a fire.

"Nothing," I say again. My dizziness is slowing down a bit, but not that much. "I'll . . . Tell you guys. . . . Later. Just, please. Let me rest!" I say.

"Yes, Elise, we had so much fun hunting. We didn't find anyone, but we did a general comb of the woods!" Sadie exclaims sarcastically.

"Yeah . . ." I say. "Great that you guys had fun."

Everyone leaves me alone to rest, and I stumble in to the tent and crash and fall asleep for about two hours. My body definitely didn't like running 2+ miles and going through drastic temperature changes.

It seems only seconds later when I wake up to Elijah yelling at me, "It's dinner time! Get over here!" My body jolts, and I groan. I go out from the tent, to see a plate of grilled cheese, slices of green and red peppers, and a glass of water.

I chug the water down, and then before I forget, I blurt out, "District 6 and 7 girls."

"What?" asks Sadie.

"They're going to be looking for Yael and Nevan. They aren't back, and Yael's been here for about five hours. They could be searching for us."

"Maybe," says Crystal.

"Yeah, and I'm thinking they're going to find us soon."

I volunteer to take the first shift since I've been sleeping for the past two hours. The sun just went down, and suddenly, I see a face in the sky. "Look up!" I yell.

Right there, is Diamond' face. On the sky. Clear so everyone can see. Then, it quickly changes to the District 3 girl, and then the District 3 boy.

"I think they're showing the deaths," says Fish.

**(Death recap here. I'm keeping track, for all who are wondering :D)**

It then goes to the boys from Districts 6, 7, and 8. We see both Tributes from Districts 10 and 11, and lastly it shows the District 12 female. After this, it fades to the seal of the Capitol and plays the Anthem.

"Fun," says Elijah, breaking the awkward silence. I burst out laughing, because I haven't had many laughs in the past week, and everyone is so tense that they join in.

I take watch.

I'm so glad that _I _actually took watch because without me, we would've all been killed.

And I guarantee that the ladies from 6 and 7 had nothing to do with it.

**CLIFFIE :D **

**I should get back to homework. **

**PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW:D :D :D :D THIS WAS THE LONGEST CHAPTER SO FAR! PLEASE!**


	9. I Totally Knew There Were Mutts Here!

**Chapter NINE! Here you are :) Sorry it's late!**

**Disclaimer: Haha, you should know I'm not Rick Riordan or Suzanne Collins, nor do I own their stories. Wait . . . how do you know? Are you stalking me? OMG IS THAT YOU OUT THERE? IM CALLIN THE POLICE.**

As previously stated, if I hadn't taken the first shift, then we all would be dead in a way that would be very hard to explain to everyone who wasn't a demigod.

Chiron is magical. I was right to take those annoying monster fighting classes and he was right to train us in all those stuff that would come in handy in the Hunger Games. Chiron probably can see the future, so he should know exactly to train us for what we probably thought would never happen.

Last time I checked, monsters weren't supposed to be in the arena.

And it wasn't a simple hellhound.

It was a hydra.

How it got there, I didn't know. Don't ask me. All I know is that I have to fight it off myself.

I just sit at the fire, staring at it. It is now just a bunch of hot coals. Yael is outside the tent, currently using my sleeping bag. "Here you go. You can use this while I'm keeping watch," I told her. It is cold, but I don't really care. I guess I kind of dose off, because next thing I know, I'm awake, and I see a giant fire in the distance. At first I think it's a really stupid tribute, but then I hear a familiar scratching of. . . claws? Claws. . . My mind immediately jumps to the word "Monster." But then again, it's probably just a mutt and will hopefully leave us alone.

But then I hear another scratch of claws that sends a chill down my spine. I recognize that sound. That is the sound of a hydra.

"No way," I whisper. This can not be a monster. Not a mutt, but a real monster that's main purpose is to hunt down demigods. I look closer.

_This definitely isn't a mutt. _I think. I go over into the tent, to where our weapons are stored.

_ELISE! _I hear a voice in my head. _Take Elijah's Sword!_

It is all I can do not to scream out in terror, but then I realize it's probably Ares. _He should know that I stink at is he asking me to take Elijah's sword? Then again, I should probably trust his judgement. . . _

While looking at my spear I got at the Cornucopia, it looks like just plain metal, while on the other hand, Elijah's sword could be some sort of celestial bronze, even though it looks like it's gold. I sneak into the tent and go over to the corner where we keep our weapons. I know for a fact that Elijah sleeps like he's hybernating whenever he's anxious, so I know that he'll not wake up. I pick up his sword and stare at it for a moment, then I leave the tent.

"Hopefully this isn't just plain old gold," I mumble to myself. I then go in slowly towards the sound of the scratching of Hydra claws. It's really easy to keep concealed behind the huge heavy woods, and I am careful not to step on any loose branches and I make sure not to drop Elijah's sword, which is significantly heavier than any spear I've used.

I think I may be hallucinating because of the major shock my body went through, but as I get closer, I can see it more clearly. I giant five headed monster that is going to eat me. I just pray my brother's sword works.

"Here we go," I mumble to myself. I come out behind the tree I'm hiding behind and I charge in to attack the Hydra, feeling clumsy with the sword. If there's not tributes mutilating each other somewhere, then I know I'm featured and I have to make an excuse for the audience.

"Urgh!" I yell. "No one ever mentioned there was a mutt like this out there!" I say as I fight it. _There. That should give the audience and excuse. _

I get caught off guard, and the hydra takes a lunge at me. I raise the sword and deflect it, but it ends up knocking me over onto the ground. I grit my teeth and come back up, to be almost scorched by fire, but I jump aside and dodge it in the nick of time.

I want to complain about how bad I am at sword play, but I don't have time, and the hydra strikes again, putting in a nice gash on my arm. "Oh my gods. . . .son you stupid hydra!" I yell, and then charge. I aimlessly swing the sword around, trying not to die. _Okay, Elise. Just remember to put son whenever you use the exclamation "gods!" They'll think you're just weird. _

A split second later, I am found with the perfect opportunity to stab the hydra in the heart, and I take the chance, and plunge the sword into the hydra's chest, praying the sword was some sort of celestial metal.

And it is. The fates must really like me at the moment to stick in a celestial bronze sword into the cornucopia. I say a silent thank-you to them as the hydra disintegrates. I want to collapse on the ground and just sleep there, but I know I have to make the trip back to camp, which is going to be a challenge since there's no fire for us to see.

I look down at the sword. It is shining in the moon light, but looks nothing like celestial bronze. Maybe there was some other metal out there that could kill monsters. I look at my reflection and I can see that I'm a mess. My hair is everywhere, and in knots, and my face looks tired and worn out, and I have gashes in my shoulder and my arm, and I've been through serious shock.

I'm so beaten up, and I've hardly been in the arena for 12 hours. _Bring honor to your district! _I think in my head, just like our old teacher said. I'm starting to go by that phrase because whenever I think that, I end up getting out of fights alive.

I slowly walk back to camp. Or, at least backwards of the direction I came. After I wander around for about five minutes, I finally stumble upon camp. I go over to the coals; the remains of our fire, and I sit down where I was before I fought the hydra. Elijah comes out of the tent slowly, and comes and sits next to me, watching the coals.

"Hey," I tell him. "I need a bandage. I got a nice gash in the arm."

"How? What happened over there? Fish, Sadie, Crystal, and Yael are out cold, but I knew something was wrong!"

I hand him his sword. "Mutt." I say for the audience. I then lean in closer and whisper so that Elijah can barely hear me, "Monster." I just pray that the microphones didn't pick that up. Even if they did, they'd have no clue what I said and they're probably editing that out right now.

Elijah looks over at me, really surprised. "Really?" He asks. "In here?"

"No, der, Elijah, of course they're going to stick mutts in here!" I say. I need to cover up our story for the audience.

Elijah hands a water bottle to me. "Drink," he says.

"I'm not thirsty."

"You now have two injuries, it looks like you've gone through some serious shock of some kind, and you've had to worry about me for the past week. Take this water bottle and drink!" He says. Grudgingly, I take the water bottle and have a sip.

My mouth recoils at the taste, and I am surprised at what it is.

A very familiar taste. Warm brownies. Not just normal brownies, but the amazing ones that mom makes.

I have to remember to stop drinking or my death by spontaneous explosion will be a pain for Elijah to explain. This is not water. This is no mortal drink. This is nectar, the drink of the gods. The fates must be_ really _liking me tonight.

"Ahhh," I say. I look over at Elijah, but he's just staring at the coals.

"Here," he says. "Let me go get a bandage for your arm." He goes into the tent silently and picks up the giant first aid kit we managed to get at the Cornucopia.

I look back over at my arm, which has a real nice gash in it. It's currently numb and I can't feel anything in my arm. "Ouch," Elijah says. He takes out some cleaner and a pad, and hands it to me. "You probably know more about this than me," he says. He goes ahead and sits down next to me on the fire.

I take a look at my water bottle. Or, more like, my nectar bottle. _Is it safe for me to wipe out my wound with it? It's a deep gash . . . _"Ah, what the hey," I say. I just pray that either A, they edit this part out with the weird girl cleaning out her wound with "Water", or B, if I do survive, then nobody mentions this afterwards otherwise people are gonna think I'm crazy.

I take a little bit of the nectar and put it on a wipe. I then dab it at my wound in my arm. I sigh because it immediately starts to feel better. I then wipe it out with a mixture of soap and water. After then, I wrap it up in a bandage, and it feels significantly better than it did before. I sigh.

"Is it feeling better?" Elijah asks.

"Yeah," I say.

I then hear a rustling. "Is everything alright?" I can see the outline of Yael over next to the tent.

"Everything's fine," I tell her.

"I'll take watch for the rest of the night. It's already around midnight," she says.

"I will too!" Elijah says.

"Okay," I say. I go into the tent. I cuddle down into my sleeping bag Yael gave to me, and am out cold in minutes.

**I know, I know, this chapter is late and short, but Leumer (Friend from school :D) didn't review even though I constantly asked him to over IM. Leumer, this is what you get. You don't get a sneak peak, and you make amazing people like Terrace Lily and fieldhockeyisamazin sad because I can't update because I promised you a sneak peek if you reviewed! **

**Please review, and I will send you an exclusive sneak peak of chapter 10. **


	10. I Go Into Shock 2 Point 0!

**My evil plan succeeded. All people who reviewed chapter nine (Which was just one person) totally didn't see my "mutt" coming! :D **

**You'd be prepared because I have lots of stuff up my sleeve, and this is _NOTHING_ compared to what is coming! **

**Disclaimer: *Shakes Magic 8 Ball* Do I own the rights to PJO and THG? **

***No. Try again later.* **

**Fieldhockeyisamazin, I can't send you a sneak peek of the chapter because you're not a registered user, but this chapter is super early and the longest one yet! **

**Lots of dialogue in this chapter. Just a heads up :D **

(I almost forgot. We're back to Elijah's POV!)

My sister goes back into the tent and I can hear her snoring in minutes. I take this time that I have alone to think about what's happening. My sister just fought a monster in the arena, and she had to use my sword. Why couldn't she have used her spear? This is one of the things I will never understand about demigods. I'm not really supposed to know about Elise, but I had to get an explanation where Elise was going every summer. Tons of other questions like these swam around in my head.

I grab one of our warm coats and wrap myself in it, and try and stay awake. I'm exhausted. Today was such a big day, and I'm lucky I'm still alive. After about a half an hour of staring at the coals, I drift into a light sleep.

"Elijah, get up, NOW!" Elise yells into my ear at what seems like minutes later. Crystal, Fish, Sadie, and Yael are quickly packing up camp. She quickly explains about how she thinks someone's going to attack the camp, and we need to pack up. I don't really get what she's saying because I am half asleep, and I got barely five hours of sleep last night.

The sun is creeping up over the horizon and it would've been pretty if I knew that I was probably going to die and Elise wasn't rushing us to pick up.

"Why should we trust you?" Asks Fish.

"Because I know stuff," Elise says. "Plus, it's not safe to stay somewhere more than a night.

I then find myself climbing a tree with my sword and breakfast.

"I'm sure they're coming. I did some exploring yesterday, and I know that the ladies from 6 and 7 are coming. They're going to raid our camp thinking we're still asleep.

I don't know how Elise knows, but after fifteen minutes of us sitting 20 feet high in a tree, we hear some talking. Sadie puts a finger over her mouth, and then raises her axe, ready to throw it down at anyone who comes near us.

Our plan was to pack up our stuff, and keep it in a pile down at the bottom of the tree. We would bring all our weapons up to the tree and eat breakfast there, ready to throw our weapons down at anyone who comes near us.

"How do you know they're somewhere near here?" a female voice says.

Another one says, "Because. They're the Careers. They saw which way we went at the fight at the Cornucopia, and then probably followed us so they could knock us out of the way. But we're smart and we're taking care of five people at once!"

"Without Nevan or Yael? I think that Nevan died last night. His face was in the sky!" replies the first one.

"Alana-" says the other one, whom I recognize as the District 6 girl. They've stumbled upon our camp and are now looking around.

"It's like another Cornucopia!" says Alana.

"Do you think that the game makers put it here on purpose?" says the District 6 girl.

They've been caught off guard and Sadie yells, "Now!" and moments later the District 6 girl gets an axe in her chest, thrown down by Sadie. She falls and is dead before she hits the ground, and a cannon goes off.

Alana looks around and finally looks up, only to have an arrow pierce her forehead, and she drops down screaming. She finally stops and is still. She is dead too, and her cannon goes off as well.

"Eleven of us left," Fish says as we climb down the tree and get our stuff. We all take a portion of the stuff we have, and start off hiking towards the desert. Crystal's logic is that if we keep walking, we'll find a source of water, maybe after the desert.

"Everywhere looks bone dry except for the salt water at the Cornucopia. From what I've seen, there isn't any normal animals here, just mutts, and normal animals would need water to survive," she says.

"I love how we're all logical with making all these guesses," I say.

"It's a good thing to think with logic in the arena, because most of the time, it's what happens. People are too desperate to stay alive to think about if they're being tracked or not," she retorts.

We come up to the sharp line that is the border between the woods and the desert. Elise groans. "Be prepared to go through some serious shock."

"Is that why you were so weird yesterday? Did you check out some of the arena?" asks Sadie.

"Yes, I did," says Elise. I can tell by the look on her face that she's not going to tell the whole truth. "I looked around and I came across the desert, so I decided to see what was after the desert."

"I told you, it was snowy hills," Yael says.

"Well, I wanted to check out your little allies to see what they were up to. That's how I knew that they were going to attack us. They were talking about us. I was spying on them," Elise blurts out. Maybe she is going to tell us everything, because by the looks on her face, she's telling the truth.

"That makes sense. Poor you. Went two miles, and went through serious shock. It's a nuisance going back and forth between the land," Yael says.

We keep walking through the blazing hot desert. It feels as if my insides are being microwaved. I feel deep sympathy for Elise, who is doing this the second time in twelve hours. She takes a sip from the water bottle I gave her last night and smiles.

_It's just water, isn't it? She's treating it like it's a chocolate milk shake or something. _

"Oh my gosh, is that water?" asks Sadie, pointing at Elise's water bottle.

"Uh . ." She stammers.

"Can I have some? I'm parched," she says. Elise becomes wide eyed, like Sadie will blow up or something if she drank from it.

"Uh, no. We're running low on water supplies," Elise says, now sweating, and looking like she's coming up with an excuse.

"Well, why do you get to?" Sadie asks. _It's a freaking sip of water, Sadie! Chill out! _

"Because my body doesn't necessarily agree with going through major shock in twelve hours!" Elise says. Now that I look closely, she does look kind of green.

Nothing interesting happens next except for we hit the distinct border of the desert and the snowy hills.

"Wait," Elise says just as I'm about to cross the border, desperate to get the feeling of my insides boiling out. "Put on the jackets now. It will reduce the shock you get." She takes the giant backpacking pack she has and takes five inky black coats out, and hands them out.

"Here, I'll just use a sleeping bag," Yael says. She digs into her pack, and takes one of our jet black sleeping bags out and wraps herself up in it, and takes her pack up.

My insides are just about cooked until I step over the border and I swear my sweat turns into ice. I kind of get dizzy as my body goes into shock, and I really sympathize with Elise, who was just in a black t-shirt.

The jackets really help, but that doesn't stop my legs from being cold. I pray a silent thank-you to the game makers for giving us shin-high black boots that are perfect for walking around in the snow with.

We keep on walking silently, and I find myself in the back of the pack with Elise. Everyone else is ten yards ahead of us, and it doesn't seem like they notice us at all.

"Elise, why did you freak out about that water bottle?" I ask.

"Elijah, where did you get it?" She's dead serious and has to know right now.

"Answer my question," I say.

"I'm not joking, you have to answer mine first," she says.

"It fell from the sky in a silver parachute. While you were out, I was keeping guard with Yael, and next thing I know, there it is."

"That was probably a gift from a sponsor," Elise says. "If people pay the Capitol money, then they can send us gifts while we're in the Arena."

"So, I was wondering why a sponsor had sent you water when we already had enough to last us another day. I was going to take a sip, but when you came back from fighting that mo- I mean, mutt, I gave it to you."

Elise sighs in relief. "Okay, no matter what you do, never drink from this water bottle." She leans in and whispers, "It has something to do with dad. Only my crowd can drink it, and if anyone else does then they spontaneously combust."

Hopefully nobody heard that. I kind of got it, but still, we don't want to take any chances.

The hills never seem to end. Halfway through walking across them, it starts to snow, and this adds to the fact that it seems like it'll never end.

After what seems like years of walking, we see blue in the distance. As we get closer, we see that this blue is water. There is 100 yards of beach, and then bright blue water shining under the sun.

We don't say anything, and are silent until we reach the border of the snowy hills and the beach. "Do you think this is the last section of the arena?" asks Elijah. We cross the border, and take off our coats.

Fish and Sadie look like they're in heaven. It's water everywhere unless you look behind yourself. Then there's just depressing snowy hills, and we're not going to think about that now.

Elise takes off her boots and socks, and takes a rock. She goes and stands ankle deep, and then throws the rock as hard and as far as she possibly can. It looks like it went about 50 yards, and then we hear a ZZAP!

"What was that?" asks Yael. Unexpectedly, we hear another cannon shot. Another tribute is dead.

"Ten left," Crystal mumbles.

"Still, what the heck was that zappy sound?" asks Yael.

"I think that was the electric field surrounding the arena. They had those everywhere at the training center, I'm not surprised that it's here in the arena," says Fish.

"You sound like someone from District 3!" Crystal says.

"Guys, this is freshwater," Sadie says. She frowns a bit and says, "It's not poisonous, but it looks like . . filtered water." That's weird. We all take our water bottles and empty them and replace them with the magical filtered water.

I pull a fast one and say, "Because the Capitol is obviously here for the comfort and safety of their tributes." I know full well the crew is editing me out, probably showing someone different. This doesn't stop everybody from laughing. We need a good laugh. It's tense here in the arena.

We set up camp right here on the beach, and pull out some lunch of assorted fruits and veggies. We actually have some fun and laughs, which I'd never thought we'd have in the Arena. It's kind of weird.

_Stay strong. _Says a voice inside my head.

At the time, I didn't really know why there was just two words inside my head. I didn't know what that meant, but it was going to mean lots of pain, surprise, and anxiety for both my sister and I, and it almost causes both of us to get killed in a nasty and painful way that I really don't want to talk about now. Frankly, I don't feel like getting depressed and I'm sure you don't either.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We should just enjoy the fact that both Elise and I are safe. Well, we're safe temporarily. You can never be truly safe in the Arena.

**Congratulations to me. Minus the A/Ns, this chapter is 2,015 words. Happy Superbowl. Your present: a super super super super long chapter that's super early. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! **


	11. Tremors, Fishing and Waves, Oh My!

**We have 1.5 hrs to write. Let's get to it. I love you guys so much so that's why this one is early. **

**Just a heads up: no more updates this week, because it's tech week for the musical I'm in and I'm going to have no spare time. :P **

**Disclaimer: don't own PJO or HG. :D **

**I had this spontanious idea on Valentine's day :D *Evil Grin* **

Elijah 

We stay at the beach for the rest of the day, and then stay the night. Fish and Sadie especially liked being around water. I felt kind of sorry for them, because this would probably be the last time that they'd ever be somewhere like home.

Nothing interesting happens for the next day after that. No deaths, and I begin to think that the Audience is getting bored, so the game makers decide to send something interesting at us.

It is the late morning of the morning of the third day. "Get up!" Elise yells at me, but I crawl back into my sleeping bag and stick the warm covers over my head.

"Ughhhahhhhh" I moan. I try and fall back asleep, but am blinded when Elise yanks the cover over on top of me. "Ughhhhhaahhhh," I complain again.

"Up! Out of bed!" she says.

I decide to be smart with her, and I say, "This isn't a bed. It is a sleeping bag. Get your sleeping locations straight." My eyes are still closed, but I know that she's glaring at me.

"Fine. I guess that you're going to be the person that pulls us down because you can't get out here and help us catch fish!" She says and throws a coat at me. She then leaves the tent

I sit up and stretch my tight muscles, and since I have no clothes other than the ones I'm wearing, I can't change. I open the zipper to the tent and step out into the late morning sun. I look over to the beach that we're staying at and I see Fish trying to teach Elise how to fish and Sadie teaching Yael.

"Get over here," Sadie calls to me. She seems to be able to fish even with a hunting knife. Fish and her have been working on weaving seaweed into fishing nets, and it seems to come in good handy.

I step into the water and come closer to Sadie and Yael. Sadie looks up and glares at me. "You just scared all of the fish away!" she says. Yael groans.

"We've been waiting here for five minutes for them!" Yael says.

"Sorry," I say, with a smile on my face. Having a teenage girl as a sister, I know that they're probably going to retort with something clever, like, "yeah, right", but they didn't. Instead they froze again, with Yael holding the net and Sadie her knife, and wait for more fish to come.

We eventually catch a couple of fish, but this wasn't the interesting part. After catching around 15 or so, Sadie and I are counting the fish up on the beach when we feel the ground rumble. Hard. She jerks up and yells, "TREMOR!" over to Fish. "Elijah, Yael, come on. We have to pack up camp NOW!" She says and then runs over to our camp and starts collapsing our set-up-in-a-minute tent. I run over and start picking up our bags, and Fish and Elise catch up to us.

Frantically, without even knowing we are, we start packing up, and are ready in about two minutes. Elise slaps a coat on me, and then on herself, and then we start heading off towards the snowy mountains. I look behind me, and I see a giant wave coming from far off in the distance to the beach, but this is no ordinary wave.

This is a wave that could only be created by the game makers. One that is built to destroy, and will kill all in it's path. I start running towards the snowy mountains as fast as I can, with Elise, Fish, and Sadie behind me.

_What about Yael? _I think. I look behind me, and I see Yael taking a sleeping bag and wrapping herself in it, but then one of the smaller wave hits her and knocks her off of her feet. "YAEL!" I yell over to her. The giant wave is approaching, and Yael is soaking wet, but she runs back up to us, as fast as we can.

We run across the border of the snowy hills and the beach, and I hear a scream. I look over and see Yael, wet to the bone standing in freezing cold with nothing on but a T-Shirt. Fish tries to give her his jacket, but she refuses.

I know that this is no ordinary wave when it comes crashing into the snowy hills. We're about 50 yards ahead of it, but it's gaining on us fast, and Yael is suffering from hypothermia.

We keep running and running. The wave never seems to end, and we can still see the ginormous wave behind us when we see a line of orange that signifies the desert. We keep going, and when we are 20 yards from the desert, the wave starts to retreat.

We are all out of breath and frozen to the bone, especially Yael, who just ran a mile going through serious hypothermia. We slowly walk towards the desert and get the feeling of our insides being microwaved while passing the dramatic landscape border change.

Yael immediately collapses the moment we reach the desert, and she is hyperventilating. It makes sense seeing that she's going through serious hypothermia, shock, and she just ran a mile in five minutes.

We decide to set camp there. We all try and help out Yael, but it doesn't look like she's going to make it. It's difficult for her to speak and she's forgetting everything. She's stumbling around and her skin is turning blue and puffy.

"What is up with Yael?" I ask Fish. We're in the tent, and Yael is lying down, and she looks like her insides are being cooked.

"Deep hypothermia, fatigue, and shock," he says. "She's not going to make it." I looked over at Yael, and I could see death knocking on her door anytime soon.

**SORRY FOR THIS SHORT CHAPTER! :P I wrote out a really basic outline of what happens in each chapter and this was all I could fit in :D **

**POLL: (PLEASE ANSWER!) **

**Which character do you want to win: **

**Sadie or Crystal? **

**(This will help me decide what order people are going to die :D Be prepared for some shocks, and a deeeeeepppp backstory.) **


	12. Elijah, She's Making Eyes At You

**TWO CHAPTERS FOR MY EPIC RETURN!**

**Another 1.5 hours I have to write. Let's get started.**

**Disclaimer: I can't think of any interesting ones. Go away. **

Elijah

The next morning, I wake up to a very cold, windy desert. Right now, it is not even sunrise. The wind is blowing the sand around playfully outside of our tent. The sky is pitch black except for twinkling stars. I look over at the other side of the tent and I see everyone asleep except Fish and Yael. It looks like he's treating her.

I creep silently over to Fish. I slowly step over Crystal, Sadie, and Elise, who are out cold. I guess I didn't go silently enough, because Fish doesn't jump when I say, "Boo." Fish just smiles at me, but then he looks back and stares at a small and shivering Yael.

I look over at Fish. "Is she going to make it?" I ask him. Fish looks at me and slowly shakes his head no. I really hate myself for immediately thinking, _well, that's one more dead. _If I was in any other circumstance, I'd think myself crazy to think anything like that. By now, whenever I think of death and the Hunger Games mixed together, I immediately think _Bring honor to your district! Bringing honor to District 2 is the most important thing here! _I want to tell memories of my old teacher to shut up, but they won't get out of my head.

I think Fish knows I won't say anything, so he explains. "I mean, she got hit by a 6 foot tall wave, got drenched to the bone, and then ran through snow in a T-shirt. After running a mile, she went through shock, and . . . now her body's gone through too much trauma, and it's just shutting down."

I look back at Yael. Her skin is turning blue and puffy. "She can't remember who she is and why she's here. She's having spastic fits. Typical of third-degree hypothermia," Fish continues. I kneel down next to Yael. Her eyes are closed, and she's hyperventilating and is stirring around.

I am about to ask Fish, _How do you know that anything about hypothermia? _Then, I remember that Fish is from District 4, and that he probably knows everything water. Now Yael is moaning in pain, and starts rolling around in her sleeping bag. It must be horrible. I remember the feeling of my insides being microwaved whenever I pass the border, but this must be a hundred times worse.

She finally makes one last scream of pain, and then she is silent. A loud canon goes off in the quiet dark morning. Fish and I just sit there, looking at her lifeless blue body until Sadie jolts awake and says, "Who died?" Wow. A canon goes off and first thing you say is, "Who died." Another thing you wouldn't do unless you were in the Games.

"Yael," Fish confirms, feeling her pulse. He nods. Sadie looks shocked, and kind of embarrassed.

"That stinks," she says. She then lies back down in her sleeping bag and stares up at the ceiling of our tent.

After a long and awkward silence, I say, "We should let the game makers get her body." I then help Fish drag her body out of the tent, and into the sand. Moments later, a helicopter buzzes into the scene. A giant claw comes down and picks up her lifeless self, and then the helicopter goes away.

After a few moments of silence, Elise says, "It's so hot here in the desert. I vote we break camp and move." We all know that nothing interesting is going to happen anytime soon, so we decide to break camp so the game makers have something to film. Unless there's not something highly interesting going on with the remaining tributes, then we're definitely going to be filmed now. We need to make this interesting.

I help Fish take down the tent that is now battered and beaten up, and we stick it in the bag. "Who should carry the tent?" I ask the group as I zip up the zipper.

"I think that you just volunteered yourself," Sadie says, then she punches me in the arm. It wasn't a mean punch, but more like a playful one. I smile at her.

"So I guess you all vote me to carry the tent?" I ask.

Everyone looks up from what they've been picking up. "Yeah." "Sure." "Go ahead." rings from the group, who I notice is taking a longer time than normal breaking camp. They're usually done by now.

After a few minutes later, Crystal, Sadie and Elise have finished shoving stuff into various bags. We don't really care about organization if we're going to end up dying.

"Got everything?" Elise asks us.

"Yup." I say. More nods of approval from the others.

"Okay then, let's get going," Crystal says, who immediately starts hiking away from the border of the desert and the snow.

Fish and Sadie follow her, and are straight behind her. I eventually find myself in the back of the pack with Elise. After walking through the desert for about ten minutes, Elise starts talking to me.

"Finally, a time where I can talk to you!" she says.

"Great," I start sarcastically. "What did I do now?"

"Nothing," she says, holding back a smile.

"What?" I ask.

"Oh my gods. . son!" she says, catching herself. "Yes, oh my godson. Newest exclamation out there." Her face turns red. "Hope Fish and Sadie didn't hear that," she mumbles.

"Okay, now what is it you wanted to tell?" I ask. Fish and Sadie are looking over their shoulders and are staring at us.

"You're just oblivious," she says, smiling.

"About what?" I ask.

She laughs and whispers, "Boys."

"I'm oblivious about boys?" I ask. "That's really awkward." _What is she talking about? _I wonder.

"No," she says, and she laughs. "You're oblivious about girls."

"You just said I was oblivious about boys!" I tell her. Now I'm really confused.

"Look, I meant to say that boys are always so oblivious about girls. And how girls like boys," Elise says.

"What are you getting at?" I ask her.

She grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me and says, "You're oblivious!"

"Care to elaborate on my stupidity and obliviousness?" I remark. I jerk myself away from her and I give her a siblingly punch in the arm.

"Oooowww!" She says. "That is my bad arm!"

"Sorry!" I say. I guess I didn't notice the huge bandage wrapped around her arm.

"Elijah," she groans. She rolls her eyes and then says, "I'm fine. In case you haven't noticed," she starts, but then goes down to a whisper. "Sadie's been making eyes at you."

"What?" I yell. Sadie and Fish look over their shoulders again, but Elise mouths _It's okay!_

_I guess I really am oblivious, if I can't see Sadie flirting with me. _I think.

Elise continues, whispering. "I thought she thought you were just a cute immature twelve year old. But that was back when we were at training. I think she has a crush on you!"

"Oh, come on, Elise. I would've noticed that," I say. I look over ahead at Sadie, who's been whispering to Fish and looking back at me occasionally.

I look over at Elise.

"Well, she's obviously not making eyes at me now!" I say.

"SHH! She'll hear you!" Elise says. She punches me in the arm. She's having one of her girly-girl moments.

"Shut up," I say.

"You shut up," she says.

We keep hiking.

**Sorry for the short chapter :P**


	13. I Pass Off As A Giant Mosquito

**ATTENTION LEUMER: I have revised this chapter and lengthened it A LOT so you'd better re-read this one and 14. (When I release it. Been doing a lot of advanced writing.)**

**Chapter 13! I finally have a free night and I really hope to get some writing done!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own PJO or HG!**

**Warning: another death. Kinda detailed. :) **

Elise

"Where the heck are we hiking to?" Elijah asks. Nobody but me seems to hear him, so he yells ahead twenty yards to where Sadie, Fish, and Crystal are. "WHERE THE HECK ARE WE HIKING TO?"

"WHAT?" they yell back.

"WHERE THE HECK-"

"Shut up," I tell him, and punch him in the gut. I run ahead to where the others are, and Elijah soon follows me.

"What was worth yelling twenty yards to us?" Crystal asks.

"Where are we hiking to?" Elijah asks with a grin on his face. Fish does a facepalm.

"You yelled just to ask us that? You could've ran ahead in the first place," he says.

Elijah sighs. "I guess nobody will answer me. I feel so unloved."

"That's because you are!" I joke, and I punch him again.

"Actually, I don't know where," says Sadie. "What about you guys?"

"I dunno either. We should be looking for other tributes," Fish says. He doesn't look at us because he is looking down at a long length of rope he is knotting while subconsciously walking.

"I can't hear you with your nose in that piece of rope," Sadie sighs.

"How many tributes are left?" I ask as I scroll through the list of tributes still alive in my mind. I know that there aren't that many still alive, but you might as well keep track.

_Let's see. I'm obviously still alive. So is Elijah, Sadie, Fish, and Crystal. There is also District 5, District 9 Male, and District 12 Male. That makes eight left. _

I also realize at that moment that with eight of us left and five of them in our alliance, we're going to have to break off eventually. I go ahead and plan to escape with Elijah and go off and pray that it doesn't come down to the two of us.

By now, the hot, blazing desert is behind us, and we are back in the heavily wooded forest. Branches crack and twigs snap as we step over them, as we make our way through the heavily wooded area.

"We should probably think up a place to make camp," Elijah remarks. Looking at everybody, I can see that we all are exhausted and looks like they've been through shock, which they have. I take a moment to appreciate the cleverness of the game makers: putting all these dramatic landscape changes every mile. It really eats away at your body and causes a lot of shock.

"I dunno," says Fish after a long silence.

"Maybe we should go to the Cornucopia. See if anyone's hanging out over there," I say, jumping over a large trunk that's fallen.

"That sounds like a good idea," Sadie says. She steps over the trunk as well. "Hopefully, we have enough water to last us a while," she murmurs to herself. I take a look around at what we're carrying, and I see One, two, three, four . . . five gallon containers of water.

_Man up. You'll have enough. _I almost jump and scream, but I then realize that my father is speaking to me again, and it's all I can do to say _SHUT UP!_ Back to him.

_What did you just say, Missy? _ He asks, but I try to ignore him. _Word of advice. The fates have been around, and not-so-pretty stuff has been predicted. Just follow your instincts, and hopefully you'll come out. _

_But what about Elijah? _I ask back. That was meant to be a rhetorical question, but he replies anyways.

_But what about Elijah? What about you? _He says, and I have a feeling our conversation is over.

Eventually, the heavy woods morph themselves into long meadows of tall, green, beautiful grass as we continue on our hike to the Cornucopia.

_I hope something interesting happens soon. The audience is probably getting bored! _I think to myself. I wonder what they will do next to us. I just pray that we find another tribute.

We wade through the sea of tall green grass some more, but nothing really interesting happens until Sadie says, "SHH!"

It takes a couple of seconds, but eventually, I can hear somebody. Someone walking. I draw my knife, and Fish motions us to crouch down in the grass so nobody can see us.

The ground is flat, and there is warm dirt everywhere surrounding the grass. Crouching down, I try and make myself as small as possible, and pray that I am seen as a giant mosquito.

I look over at my fellow allies, and I make a face that tries to say _Let's make this entertaining. _Everyone else nods a yes, as if they get my message.

Suddenly, the quiet walking stops. I look around, and 20 yards away, I see someone. She looks around and luckily doesn't see us. She's not necessarily walking towards us, but she still doesn't see us.

We slowly and soundlessly creep towards her, army crawl style, hopefully being hidden by the tall grass that reaches about 3 feet off the ground.

We are now about 10 yards from the girl I now recognize as the District 5 Female. Elijah looks around at us, and mouths _Three. Two. One. _He then yells, "NOW!" and we all jump up, weapons drawn, and we start running towards her.

It's not that she is a fast runner, it's that we have a hoard of stuff. We all make a semi-circle around her, trying to catch her, and we aren't successful.

Three minutes of constant bolting, we see a gold glimmer in the distance. The Cornucopia. It gets closer: Fifty yards. Thirty yards. Ten yards.

We all drop our stuff and District 5 plunges into the lake that surrounds the plates that we were held for sixty-seconds at the beginning of the games.

Big mistake. Now that we have District 4 on our side, and all our weight holding us down gone, we have the advantage. Clearly, she can kind of swim okay, but of course Sadie and Fish catch her in about ten seconds, with Crystal, Elijah, and I close behind them.

We drag the girl to the little island with the Cornucopia. My stomach is churning, because we need to make this entertaining, and I hate to see her screaming and kicking. "Please! Please!" She begs. She has only one spear, but that is no good compared to five knives, an axe, a bow and arrow, another spear, a trident, and a sword.

Crystal knocks her down on her back and knocks her spear out of her hand. I look away. I hear a scream and a few tense moments of her last breaths. She makes one final whimper, and then she is silent. I know that she is now dead.

Crystal retrieves her knife, and a canon goes off. She has a smug look on her face as she sheaths her knife again. She turns to us.

"Well, I vote we set up camp over there," pipes up Sadie.

"That seems good," says Elijah. Fish, Sadie, and I agree without saying anything.

"Come on, guys. Let's let the game makers get her body," Fish says. Everyone clears out and swims back to the meadows, but I stay back. I want to grab her spear while I can.

I set my spear down and pick this one up. I am shocked by what it looks like. Just by looking at it, I know the head of the spear is half steel, half celestial bronze. I see the familiar shine of Celestial bronze, and I decide to try it out.

I poke the Celestial Bronze side of the blade, and it makes a small cut in my finger, and I see a drop of shining blood come from my finger.

I now poke the Celestial Bronze side of the blade to the dead District 5 Girl. It passes straight through and stops on the mortal steel side.

"It's like Elijah's sword," I mumble. Half Celestial Bronze, half Mortal Steel. I guess the fates are really liking me today.

"Elise!" Get over here!" Elijah yells. Everyone's already swam back. I drop my old spear on the ground, and swim back. I can hear the sound of a helicopter coming in and it comes and takes her body. We make camp.

_You know, after this kid named Luke had a sword like that, everyone has something like that. There's only about 30 or 40 of those kinds in the entire world. They're not that common _Dad tells me. I smile, and say, "Thanks." It feels nice that he's talking to me. I just wish he would talk to me forever.

**Yay! A nice sized chapter for my epic return. Herest thou goest. **


	14. Siblingly Talks with Elijah

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN! HERE YOU GO! :D **

**Disclaimer: *Disclaims right to PJO and HG***

Elise

We set up camp over in the meadow. It is a nice place to set up because the weather was normal and not excessively hot or wet or cold or chilly. Hopefully another death is going to get us a peaceful night.

We've been hiking the whole day, and by the time we get camp fully set up, I guess it is around 5 or 6 P.M. We build a fire A, to make ourselves some dinner and B, so maybe we can round up the three remaining tributes outside of our alliance.

Thinking about that reminds me that I have to go talk to Elijah about possibly breaking the alliance now that there are so little of us left here. Let me think, it's been . . . five days, and 17 people have already died.

"Hey, Elijah. We're going on a field trip," I tell him, I beckon him over to talk to him, far out of earshot of anyone else.

"There's seven of us left," I whisper.

"I know," he says. "You could've just told me that back there and we wouldn't have wasted time by coming over here."

"Don't be such a smart-Alec," I tell him.

"You don't waste my time. What is it that you wanted to tell me?" he asks.

"Well, I guess that since there's only 7 of us left, maybe we should consider breaking off from Sadie, Fish, and Crystal soon," I tell him.

"Maybe," he says. "Actually, I'm not sure. I guess, I just don't want it to come down . . . to the two of us." He swallows and sticks his hands in his pockets.

"It's okay," I say. I can fell a tense moment coming on, and I hug him. "It'll be okay."

"Okay, so if we do decide we need to break off at a moment's notice, then we should have some sort of a signal."

"Okay. What should we do?" I ask him.

"We. . . we should yell, purple and pink pancakes!" he says.

"Well, that'll catch everyone off guard. I guess that'll work," I shrug. "But then, what if it does come down to the two of us?" I ask.

"If it does come down to the two of us, well then, I'll just kill myself," he says.

"You're too young to die!" I say back. Now it's my turn for tears to come streaming down my face.

"So was that District 5 girl. She was only twelve as well, and we both let Crystal kill her!" he says. "I hate when people die. There's always an annoying ringing in my ears. I can like, feel their soul detaching from their body."

My eyebrows arch. "Y-You can?" I ask. A moment of silence. Elijah sits down in the tall green grass and I sit down next to him.

"Is that not normal?" He asks.

"No, it just sounds like you're a -" I take a deep breath. "Nothing. It's nothing, really." _That sounds like a child of Hades! _I think. I stand up and start walking back towards camp.

Elijah jumps up and runs towards me, but I'm already twenty feet ahead of him. I run back. I don't want to talk to him. Everything is so confusing and now I'm more sad and angry than ever. My emotions are running all over the place, and I need to collect myself.

Sadie looks up from tending our fire and asks "What were you guys doing?"

"Um, it was nothing. Just a . . . siblingly talk. That's it," I say. Sadie's eyes fill with sorrow and she nods understandingly. She probably thought I was just saying bye to Elijah, which I kind of was.

I sit down and stare at the fire. _I wish people would see the smoke and come find us. I want this to end. _I think. More things run through my mind, but for now, there are no signs of any humans besides my fellow Career Pack Members until we hear the sound of horns.

I jump up from my daze and half-sleep mode, and I hear a clear sound ringing from nowhere. I can clearly hear the voice that was at the very beginning of the games. The voice that said, "Let the very first Hunger Games begin!"

"Congratulations for making it this far!" the voice says. "There are seven of you left, and we know water is running low because the sea at the end of the arena is drained," he says.

"Therefore, we will be having a feast. A feast is where we send in supplies to the Cornucopia again where you can come get," he explains.

"Tomorrow morning, at the island with the cornucopia, there will be gallons and gallons of water for you to come all get. Let's see who can get the most water! Be sure to get there otherwise you might find that your water sources are getting low!" he explains.

Next, two faces are shown in the sky tonight: Yael and District 5 Female. The anthem plays, and the sky goes dark.

We all crowd around the fire to talk. "So, basically, they're inviting us in to kill each other?" Crystal asks. A chill goes down my spine as I hear the SCREEK of her sharpening her knife.

"I guess so. We can get some more people out of the way," Elijah says. Nobody says that if the three other tributes die, then we'll have to kill each other.

"What should we do? We're already here, and people are bound to start moving in tonight to get ready for tomorrow.

"We should make a plan of attack," says Elijah.

"We should set up camp on the island of the cornucopia, and we could have someone keep watch. You could obviously hear someone swimming towards here. If anyone comes, we take them down. We get all the water in the morning," Fish says.

"Seems good to me, but we just set up camp!" I say.

"Or we could die of thirst. . . ." Sadie says. Without further ado, we pack up camp again and try our hardest to move it to the cornucopia island without getting it wet. I am volunteered to take the tent by everyone. After packing it up into its little case, I wade into the water.

As I get deeper and deeper in, I have to lift the case with the tent higher so it doesn't get wet. The pool of water goes about 5'2 deep, and I manage to wade through, even though it takes me about ten minutes.

We don't necessarily set up camp, we just get out sleeping bags. Crystal volunteers to take first watch.

_Congrats. You survived another day. _

_Shut up, dad. _

_What did you just say, missy?_

_Nothing. SHHH! I'm sleeping. _

_Fine. _

**I have this whole story planned out, and this chapter marks TEN CHAPTERS LEFT! They're going to be longer, though, I pretty promise :) **


	15. O, Brother, Where Art Thou?

**Leumer, Leumer. Your punishment for STALKING AND CREEPING ME OUT is to wait with all the other mortals for this chapter to come out. If you behave and don't CREEP ME OUT, I might send you drafts of 16!**

Elise

I try to fall asleep, but A, the ground is hard and cold. (A sleeping bag and a coat as a pillow doesn't really help), and B, Dad keeps bugging me about tactics. He eventually just gets really carried away and goes on for another few minutes until I sit up and yell, "SHUT UP!" Elijah jumps awake scared to death, and I say, "Sorry."

"What the heck was that? That's the second time I've been scared to death, so now I should be dead! Thank you for killing me!" He rants on. I sit up and plop myself up on my arm on the cold ground.

"Sorry. Erm, dad was trying to give me some advice," I say. I crept in closer to where he was, and said, "He kept telling me a bunch of stuff on how to stay alive and to buck up and to not care about you."

"But you do care about me, right?" he asks me. _OF COURSE I DO! _I want to scream and hug him. It is all I can do not to burst into tears and scream bloody murder to the capitol using the choicest words I can.

But the truth is, Elijah is all I have left. He's really all I've ever really had. I mean, I have mom and my step-dad, they fed me, stuck clothing on me, and sent me to school, but that's basically all they did. Elijah is the only one who has been there for me the whole time.

I remember all the sweet memories we had as kids like the time we played a prank on those peacekeepers when I was ten and he was eight. And the time we found that secret compartment in the peacekeeper outfit building and it became our hideout.

After some silence, I finally say, "Elijah, you're all I have left. I don't want to let you go." I take another deep breath to collect my thoughts. "And it won't come down to the two of us. I'm going to die, and I've already decided that."

He butts in, "No you're n-

"You're to young to die!" I yell. By now, I'm at the verge of crying. "Just. . . . Just go to bed. Wake me up before sunrise."

"It'll be okay," Elijah says.

"No it wont," I reply.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Well, please forgive me, but I'm kind of exhausted. You know, I've hiking around, going through shock, and my shoulder is healing from six days ago. I also kind of forget about the feast, and I have no clue what's going on when I get jolted awake by a scream.

It is sunrise right now, and I can hear the clash of weapons and splashing of water. I jump up and grab my new celestial bronze mortal steel spear and immediately go into fight.

I can see containers with gallons and gallons of water all over the place, and I can see all three other tributes fighting us off. It seems to be that they're in an alliance themselves.

"Keaton!" the boy from District 12 calls. Sadie is zooming in on him, and she has her axe drawn.

"Pierce! I'm coming!" District 9 Male calls. He's off fighting Fish with the District 5 boy. He runs and shoves me out of the way and goes and gives Sadie a nice gash in the leg with his knife, catching her off guard.

Keaton and Pierce then jump into the water and swim off, leaving their other ally behind. "Sorry to ditch you, Seth!" Keaton yells. Sadie jumps in after them, but is slower than normal because of her leg cut.

I run over to help Fish fight the District 5 boy, whom Keaton and Pierce calls Seth. He's a good fighter. He's got two long hunting knives. If they were only a couple inches longer, they could pass off as swords.

I can see in his face that he wants Fish to die. Fish tries to jab at him with his trident, but this kid is fast as lightning and dodges every move he makes. "FISH!" I yell, I catch both of them off guard and I chuck my spear at Seth.

If there really were ninjas here in Panem, then Seth is the closest you can get to one. Even though he's off guard, he manages to dodge my spear. I draw my knife and zoom in, trying to get past him to retrieve it, but it's at the edge of the island ten feet behind him.

Fish jabs at him, and he whips his trident and knocks one of Seth's knives out of his hand and into the water. Fish, Crystal and I are the only ones on the island. I have no clue where Sadie and Elijah are, but that doesn't matter.

I keep watching Fish fight him. I can't really do anything since I'm unarmed, but Fish knocks his other knife out of his hand, and Seth stumbles back. Fish is triumphant and is caught off guard, but I have just enough time to yell, "FISH!" before Seth picks up my spear and chucks it at Fish, getting him clean in the chest.

"Peace out!" he says, grabs a water bottle, one of his knives, and then runs to the water.

"CRYSTAL!" I yell. She comes over. Fish is on the ground writhing in pain. He's hyperventilating. Crystal runs over to where I am and kneels down. She sets her bow and arrow down.

"Fish," she says. I kneel down over him too.

"He- He got me good," he chokes out. He takes a deep breath. "Go. . . Go find Sadie and Elijah," He says. He chokes again and coughs up blood. He takes one last breath, and is dead. A canon goes off.

A loud cannon goes off. I take my spear out of his body knowing A, that he'd want me to have it and B, it's half celestial bronze, half mortal steel. I go over to camp and I tell Crystal, "Now that we've lost 3/5 of our group, I vote we pack up stuff we need, and go fine them."

"And . . . We hide the stuff we don't need at the cornucopia," says Crystal. "Everyone thinks that it's been stripped bare, and nobody could see anything.

Okay. We both take the huge backpacking bags and pack a sleeping bag and a coat for each of us. We take the rest of our food and water and stick it in there. We take the tent and anything else that we don't need and stick it in the Cornucopia.

Now we make the big swim back. Everybody is about ten minutes ahead of us.

"Which direction did they go?" Crystal pants when we arrive at shore.

I look back at the cornucopia and use it as a pinpoint to guess which direction they went. "I think . . . I think that they went this way."

"Are you sure?" Crystal replies. It's obvious she isn't certain.

"Ninety percent sure," I say. "Okay, take that back. Eighty-five percent sure. I think. Maybe."

We run off to find Elijah and Sadie.

**^_^ So sorry for the short chapter. Now, I shall go revise it and make it longer than 800 words. Thank you, come again. (I added 600 words. Go me.)**

**PS, please review!**


	16. We Throw Seth Towards An Angry Snake

**Leoissofunny, He's not. The story won't add up in the end if he's a son of Hades. :)**

**Just a note: I hereby declare it possible to get writer's block even though you have a sticky note on your laptop that has the whole story planned out, and even a table of who dies when and where and such.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Hunger Games, then the movie would be out already - Oh wait. It already is out. :P**

**In case you didn't notice, I made some major edits with chapters 1-10. If you have the time, you should go re-read them :)**

Elijah

It was all a blur, the fight at the cornucopia, but all I can think about is catching up to Sadie and the District 5 Male. (Seth, right? Whatever.) All this hiking and running is paying off, because it's not as tiring and I can go faster.

That's beside the point. We're still in the meadows. I look ahead, and I can see Sadie far ahead of me, and the outline of Seth in the distance. "Sadie!" I yell over to her. She either A, can't hear me, B, responds and I can't hear her, or C, could hear me and doesn't respond.

_You need to get to her now! Otherwise you're going to get lost! _I feel an extra surge of strength run through my body and I bolt to where Sadie is.

"Elijah. . ." She calls over to me. She takes a deep breath and looks over at me. "I- thought you weren't coming." You're probably not running at the moment, but it's pretty hard to run at top speed and talk with someone.

"Don't worry, I'm here, Let's get this Seth kid," I say. I look ahead in the distance again, and I see him. We're getting closer to where he is.

By now, I can see the heavy woods coming up into the distance. _We've already gone a mile? That was quick. _Before we know it, we can see the woods ending and the desert is coming up quickly. I know full well that all of us are slowly loosing stamina, but Sadie and I keep pursuing Seth.

Seth can run fast, but he can't really keep at a steady pace. When we can see the snowy hills in about 40 yards ahead of us, Seth finally starts to slow down. A lot. It takes only moments for Sadie and I to catch up to him and tackle him.

"We've got you now," Sadie says, and she spits in his face. She is about to unsheathe her knife when we hear a hissing sound to the left of us. All three of us look directly to our left to where the hissing sound came from, and I see some kind of giant snake. Sadie screams, "EEEKK!" at once, and Seth sees this as the perfect time to get out of Sadie's grip, and he jerks himself up. I am there in milliseconds to pin him back down.

I look back over at the snake, which is now 3 feet from us. It is now bearing its fangs, and Sadie looks really creeped out by it. It is now slithering closer to us, and Sadie looks at me. In her eyes, I can clearly see the words form without her saying anything. _Throw Seth at the snake. _I make a small quick nod, and a smile creeps upon her face.

"NOW!" she yells. I put all my force into throwing Seth away from us and getting him towards the snake to keep it occupied.

"AHHHH!" He yells. By now Sadie and I are running towards the line of snowy woods, and I don't have time to look back, but from what I hear, the snake is attacking Seth. After running through the border, I turn back and I see Seth shooing the snake away, but the snake keeps trying to bite him. After making three or four more bites on Seth, he crumples down onto the ground, and the snake eventually leaves him alone. He takes his last breath and is silent. Seth is dead. I hear that ringing in my ears that happens whenever someone dies. It's so annoying. A cannon goes off.

"Ugggggghhhhh. I hate when people die. I get this weird ringing in my ears," I tell Sadie.

"You do? That's weird," she says. "I guess the snake's venom was really poisonous. Let's get going. It might be a mutt and it might follow us," she says, and takes off towards the beach in an odd direction, shivering.

"Dang it!" I say. "We really needed to bring coats."

"I-I-I-I know," Sadie replies, shivering. "We did. Come on. Let's get to the stupid beach. We need a supply of water." She then runs ahead of me, blushing.

_I guess Elise was right. Sadie likes me! _I think. _Wow. Nobody has ever liked me before. I've always been the socially awkward kid in the corner! Fun! _I smile to myself, but I then realize that Sadie's 50 yards ahead of me, and I sprint to catch up to her.

I go into a subconscious state of walking. It is so abnormally cold that I can't think. I just concentrate on going forward and hopefully someday see a warm sandy beach. It is so much colder than the first few days, I'm under the impression the Game makers purposely have changed the temperature to more extremes.

Sadie and I don't talk. It's not awkward at all, it's just too cold for us to talk. (If that's possible.)

Before I even notice it, the cold suddenly goes away and I find myself collapsed on the sandy ground of a beach. My insides feel like they're being microwaved. My vision clears up, and I see a beautiful blue sky and playful waves crashing on the beach. Sadie is lying right next to me. She jerks up and says, "WHOAH that place was cold!"

I slowly nod, and then say, "My insides are being microwaved."

"I vote we stay here for now," Sadie tells me.

"Elise is probably frantic," I say. "She's probably looking all over for us."

"Well, it wouldn't be such a good idea to go looking for Crystal and her right now. This place has a 5 mile diameter. They could be anywhere. I think it's best if we just stay here near a source of water."

"I guess so," I say. "Let's just hope Elise and Crystal find us."

**Sorry for taking forever to update. :D **

**Please review. I'm not joking, they MAKE MY DAY! Just a little bit of encouragement from you guys keeps me running and I tend to update faster when I have reviews. (No joking.)**


	17. My Sword Is Magical

**Miss Technicality is amazing. I'm just putting that out there. Have a cookie. You reviewed. (-^_^)-O I promise to give cookies to all those who review. They all make my day!**

**Disclaimer: *disclaims rights to PJO and HG***

I would highly enjoy the beach if there wasn't a 5 in 6 chance of me dying. The game makers apparently replenished the drained sea. The waves are beautiful, crashing on the shore constantly, with more coming towards the shore all the time. The sand is warm, but not too hot. There are palm trees near the edge of the beach, swaying back and forth in the wind. It is almost paradise, except for the fact that Sadie and I need to keep up our guard 24/7 and hope that nobody comes our way while we're separated from our group.

Sadie and I hang around the beach for the day. We make a fire, and I help gather seaweed so she can make a net so we can catch fish. "I thought ahead and I brought a pack with loaves of bread," Sadie tells me as we gather seaweed. "But, there's only 7 or 8 loaves in there. I need to make a net so we can fish. This bread can't sustain us forever." She looks at me and I can see a sparkle in her eyes. Maybe it's just that the landscape feels like home to her, or maybe Elise was right about her liking me. I smile back at her.

After gathering seaweed, Sadie immediately starts doing complicated knots to make a net. I take my sword and go keep watch. I climb up a palm tree with my sword, looking in the direction of the desert. I sit down, and I take a look at my sword. "Is it weird that this is gold?" I wonder aloud. _I mean, I'm really great with working with it, but why am I clumsy with any other one? _

I run my hand over the blunt edge. The gold shines in the sunlight. _Snap out of it. You're supposed to be keeping watch. _"Ugh!" I say. I look back at my hand, and I see a streak of red shining on my hand. "Dang it!" I yell. My hand starts stinging. I cut myself with the edge of the sword. _Wow am I stupid. Cutting my hand on the edge of my sword. _I think.

"Is everything alright?" Sadie yells up to me.

"Everything's fine," I yell back. "I-I just accidentally cut myself on my sword." I look back to where she's sitting. She has a good portion of the net done in this short time, and I can see her cracking up. "Shut up!" I yell to her.

She just smiles, and says, "You're just so cute." I just smile back at her. She goes back to weaving the net. I turn my head back around to where I'm sitting and I see a trickle of blood going down my hand. I don't care about that. _She said I was cute. _I smile. _She said I was cute. _

When Sadie is done with weaving her net, which surprisingly only takes about about an hour, we go ahead and start fishing. "You know, I would totally rather keep guard than fish. This is so boring. And you guys do this for a living?" I tell Sadie.

"Shh! You're scaring all the fish away!" she says to me. She blushes, and I smile.

After fishing for a while, Sadie and I decide to go out hunting for a while to see if we can find some tributes. We gather the food we have- which consists of about ten or so fish and six or seven loaves of bread- and store it up in the tree that we use to keep shelter. As I finish putting the food we have up in the tree, praying that nobody stumbles upon our camp and notices it, Sadie immediately starts towards the border of the beach and the snowy hills.

I start to climb down the tree. I'm pretty clumsy at it, and I almost fall to the ground multiple times. "Wait a minute!" I yell over to Sadie, who stops abruptly.

She turns around and yells, "What?"

"I don't-" I start, but then I run over to where she is. "I don't think it's a good idea to go through the snowy hills again. I mean, we've already been through that and the desert today, and we don't have jackets or something. Maybe we can just look around here on the beach," I tell her. She contemplates this for a while.

She eventually shrugs and says, "Fine with me."

We then start walking along the beach. The waves keep crashing on the shore, the palm trees keep swaying back and forth. We keep moving. Nothing changes except that we move in a slight curve. "I guess the Arena is circular," I tell Sadie. She just nods.

_The audience is probably getting bored. I mean, we've already had a death today, but is that enough to keep things peaceful? _I wonder. I keep an eye out for the small chance of the two other tributes to stumble upon our way.

I don't know how long we walk, but all I know is that the sun was in a different spot when we started walking. My mind keeps wandering and we keep going.

"Elijah," Sadie says. "Elijah!" She shakes me, and I am taken out of my haze.

"What?" I ask. She points up ahead. What I see terrifies me. _A mutt. _I think. Twenty yards ahead, there is a giant lizard-like creature that has black scales and five heads. It has many rows of razor-sharp teeth that looked perfect for biting little Sadies and Elijahs, its hands are clawed and sharp, it had a ginormous scary tail, and spits acid that looks deadly.

_I guess a death isn't enough to keep things peaceful, _I think. "I'm guessing we're supposed to fight this?" I ask Sadie.

She gulps. "Yup. I guess so."

"Well, might as well get it over with," I say. I draw my sword, and I charge in. Sadie takes out her axe, and immediately starts attacking the mutt with it.

"WHAT?" she yells. She's hacking at the mutt, but her axe goes straight through the mutt. She takes out her two knives and tries stabbing at the monster. "It's going clean through! Try with your sword!" I zone in, trying to dodge the acid the mutt is spitting and the fire that might kill me.

I try and hack at the side of the monster, totally expecting my weapon to go through it, but it doesn't. It makes a nice gash in the mutt's hide and it cries out in pain. In a half a second, after the weapon makes a gash on the mutt, and before the mutt strikes again, a gazillion things click in my mind.

_Why doesn't Sadie's weapons work?_

_Because this must not be a mutt, and her weapons don't work on what it is. _

_Well, then, what is it? _

_A monster, der. You're the sister of a demigod. Hasn't she mentioned at some point that only magical bronze can attack monsters? _

_Probably once or twice. My sword definitely doesn't look like bronze._

_So what? Oh, yeah, you're going to die now if you don't move, so you'd better get a move on that. _

I then dodge a wall of bright fire that comes toppling over me. Or, well, almost dodge it. My right shin is exploding with pain, but that's beside the point here. "Yoohoo!" Sadie calls. She's standing 20 feet away, and I immediately realize that she's trying to distract the mutt- well, monster. I take this opportunity to ignore the pain in my shin and somehow get underneath the monster and stab it in the heart with my sword.

I find that getting under the monster wasn't necessarily a good idea. I ditch my sword and leap out from under the monster as fast as I can as it falls to the ground in pain. My left hand doesn't make it out in time and I hear a CRACK! and I know that I've broken my wrist.

After this, the least expected thing I thought would happen happens. The monster disintegrates, leaving an injured me, a pile of dust, and a broken sword.

**PLEASE REVIEW! THEY MAKE MY DAY AND I JUMP UP AND DOWN AND SCREAM WHENEVER I GET ONE :D **


	18. A Cute Girl Is Bawling On My Shoulder

**Okay. Here's where things start to get MEGA interesting, if they haven't already ^_^ (Warning: This includes parts where your jaw drops and you go, "I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE WROTE THAT.")**

**Disclaimer: Oh, yeah! I don't own these lovely stories. **

The first thing I do is cry out in pain. "Elijah!" Sadie calls. She runs over to where I am and kneels down. She examines my burnt leg. She cringes a bit, and I can tell that it's really bad.

"That looks like it hurts," she says. "Of course it hurts. Who am I kidding? Your leg was on fire!"

My jaw drops. "It was?" I ask her. That probably explains why my leg feels like it's exploding.

"Yeah," she says. "Here. Let me help you stand up. The best remedy for a burnt leg is cold water." She stands up and holds out a hand to me. I take her hand and she helps me up until I yelp out in pain again.

"AHH!" I say. "I think I broke my wrist in that arm." I grit my teeth. My hand feels like someone crushed it and then is ripping it off. She takes my other hand, and helps me up. It's actually not that bad, if I put all my weight on my left foot.

I put most of my weight onto Sadie and she helps me to the shore of the water. My boots and socks were somehow knocked off when I was fighting the monster, so Sadie is saved from having to help me get them off. My feet are probably stinky. She helps me to the shore and lets me sit down. She takes out her knife, and without asking, cuts off the leg of my pants so the burned shin is showing. It is blistered and the skin is charred.

"Darn," is all Sadie says. She takes the cloth she just ripped off my pants and dips it in the water, and puts it one me. The cloth really helps with the pain, but how will it heal? what about my wrist? "I'll go gather some wood and sea-weed to make you a splint," she says, and is immediately off.

I take this time to see if there's any other injuries besides this one. I look at my hand that is broken and I see a large gash on it. "Oh, well," I say. Now's not the time to worry about simple gashes. Now's the time to worry if a burnt leg and a broken wrist means death or vulnerability to death.

_Well, my body's been pretty beaten up over the last few days. Going through shock is now almost a daily thing, and that's not doing anything good for me. I've gotten various minor injuries over the past few days, and now my right leg's covered in blisters and right wrist is broken. What will this mean for me? _

After pondering various forms of my death, which has now really struck me in the face that it could happen, Sadie comes back with two planks of wood and a hunk of seaweed she gathered. I hold out my broken wrist, and she works magic, and makes a really tight and good splint.

"How do you know how to do that?" I ask her.

"Well, my parents are my town's doctors. I mean, there's the occasional little kid who almost drowns while learning to swim, and there's the occasional doofus who accidentally stabs their own foot with their trident, and other stuff, so I guess it's in my blood," she explains. She looks up at the sky. "Wow. The sun is going to set in about an hour. We need to get back to camp otherwise we've lost all our supplies."

"Yeah," I say. I really don't want to leave. I honestly don't feel like walking a couple of miles. Sadie takes the cloth from my leg and it's all I can do not to beg and whine for it back because my leg is flaming up again. She helps me stand up and I put some of my weight on Sadie and I awkwardly start limping back to camp.

I block out the pain as best as I can. This also means blocking out the rest of the world, and going into the third sub-conscious walking state of the day.

After what seems like hours of walking- even though it was an hour and a half at the most, we stumble upon camp. Sadie sits me down next to the glowing coals of the fire that we had earlier today and goes to retrieve the food in our tree as I sit there, watching the sun go down.

Sadie comes back and starts skinning and de-boning a fish with her knife, her expert hands doing every little move like she was meant to. She skins four fish, and then sets them on the hot coals to cook.

"How's your leg doing?" She asks as she pokes the coals with a stick.

"A little bit better," I manage to get out. "But . . . it still REALLY hurts," I say. It's all I can do not to start wailing. My leg is hurting that much and did not appreciate being walked on for an hour and a half.

Both of us hear a SWOOSH- the sound of something small landing on the sand. We look over, and see a small container and a parachute."Is that. . .?" Sadie asks. She goes over to investigate. She brings back a container of ointment. "A gift from a sponsor?"

"Looks like it," I choke out. My leg is in so much pain, it almost hurts to talk. She looks at my leg and then the ointment. She unscrews the cap and then starts dabbing it onto my leg. "OH MY-" I say. I take a huge sigh of relief as the medicine is sucking out the pain. I can't find anymore words except for, "MORE!" I beg. I grab the container from her and start glopping it onto my leg. "Ohhhhhh," I say. It feels amazing.

Minutes later, I see that Sadie has made dinner. Fish sandwiches. "Very creative, you know, using our sources of bread and fish and making a fish sandwich," I say as I gulp down one as fast as I can. I haven't had anything to eat the whole day and I'm starving. _Maybe you do have a chance of surviving. _I think to myself.

I am surprised when I hear the anthem of the Capitol. _Chill out! It's just the death toll! _I think before I have a heart attack. I look up in the sky. First, I see the smiling face of Fish, and then Seth, with a smirk on his face, like he's saying, _I'm so going to win this thing. _Well, look, buddy, you just died, so I guess not.

I look back at Sadie, and I can see a tear in her eye. _That's right _I think. _Fish was her fellow tribute. _I scoot myself over to her. "Hey, it's okay," I tell her. I then give her a hug. She takes my shoulder gratefully and starts bawling.

_Congratulations, Elijah. You have a cute girl bawling on your shoulder, _I hear a voice in my head say.

_So? _I reply to the voice.

_She likes you! Kiss her! _says the voice. It's all I can do not to yell "NO WAY!" back seeing as that would be very unfitting. After a few minutes, Sadie lets go of my shoulder, and dumps water all over the coals. She then moves over and lies down in the sand. I go lie down next to her.

"It'll be okay," I promise, but in response, I get the snore of Sadie. _Good riddance. She's probably really tired. _And I fall asleep too, next to her.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

I am woken up in the morning by the sound of waves crashing against the shore. Sadie is still sleeping next to me. Seconds later, she wakes up too. She sits up and yawns. "How's your leg doing?" she asks.

I take a good look at my leg and see it's improved. A whole bunch. The redness has died down and my shin is now covered in baby pink blisters. "It's doing a lot better," I say.

"You know, I've thought about it, and I've now realized that I will survive without Fish," Sadie says.

"Yeah," I mumble.

"I mean, he was a great friend, but I really should've been prepared for this from the start," she continues.

"Yeah," I say. I look back up to her face. It is inches from mine. I am not prepared for this.

"You really helped comfort me," she whispers.

Her lips touch mine for only a second until there is a searing pain in my back and everything goes black.

**You (via Review): Did you just kill your main character?**

**Me: *gains sudden interest in shoes.* Maybe.**


	19. Real Or Not Real?

**Please don't kill me for the previous chapter. . . (Wait a minute, if they're gonna kill me for that then what about . . . *gulps*)**

**I PRETTY PROMISE! I HAVE/HAD TO DO THIS TO MAKE IT WORK OUT :D **

**Disclaimer: :D Meesa No owny HG and PJO. (PJO IS FOR NERDS!) Because we'll take care of that when we serve you rice!  
>(O_O So many inside jokes in that disclaimer. Sorry. It's 10:30 at night and this is when I become weird.)<strong>

Elise

I wake up screaming. I wake up to a canon. I wake up to havoc. I wake up to having to deal with demigod dreams that have happened.

"What?" Crystal yells over to me. "Geez! You almost made me fall out of my tree here!" she says.

"I had this dream. . . and then this cannon went off and Elijah died," I say. I try to calm myself down because hyperventilating like a maniac isn't a very good idea.

"Wait, what happened?" Crystal asks.

"Oh my gods. . son, Sadie kissed Elijah!" I scream out, remembering that detail of my dream.

"Wait a minute, what happened in your dream?" Crystal asks. "And also, while you're at it, please elaborate why Sadie kissed him."

Just then, another cannon goes off. I can feel my face tighten up. _Calm down, Elise. It's okay! Chill out_.

I start my story for Crystal.

"Well, Sadie and Elijah were sleeping on the shores of the beach," I start.

"The beach?" Crystal asks. "This dream you're having definitely isn't true. They wouldn't dare cross the desert and the snowy mountains in T-Shirts."

"Let me continue!" I say. "So, Elijah wakes up, and then looks down at Sadie. She then wakes up, and then they talk about injuries and then Elijah comforts Sadie because Fish died. Behind them, about 20 yards, I can see Keaton, the guy from District 9 and the guy from District 12. Keaton, or whoever he is, aims his knife, and just as Sadie kisses him, the knife enters his back. He drops down dead. Then I am awakened by the cannon."

"That's really . . . detailed," Crystal says.

"Most of my dreams are," I say.

"Me too. They have a tendency of sometimes being somewhat real," she says.

"Yeah," I say. There is a mildly awkward silence.

"Come on. Let's get some lunch," Crystal says.

"I don't know about you," I say, "But it feels like two in the afternoon."

"Yeah," says Crystal, who looks up at the sun. "It looks like it."

"Let's get some lunch," I say.

"Then maybe we can go find Sadie and Elijah and maybe get those two other tributes knocked out of the way," Crystal says.

"Okay," I say. We both get out of our sleeping bags and pack them into our bags and climb down the trees that we're in. "What's for lunch?" I ask Crystal, who is rummaging through our bag of food. _Who cares about lunch? YOUR BROTHER JUST DIED! _says a voice in my head. I choke back a scream. _Oh, are you kidding me? It was just a dream. Calm down. _The other part of my brain tries to convince me otherwise.

"I guess we'll have bread and water," Crystal says and shrugs. She takes out a loaf of bread and tears it in half and takes out two containers of water. She gives half the bread and a water bottle to me.

We munch silently on the bread and drink the water. "Come on," says Crystal. "Let's go find your little brother and Sadie. I'm sure they're fine."

"But what if they're not?" I ask. _If she's right and Keaton and Pierce magically finished each other off, then I should take her out now when she's least expecting it _I think.

_Oh, who are you kidding, Elise? Just wait until tonight when they show the anthem and the deaths. Just hope for the best and pray they're still alive. Or at least Elijah. _"Where should we start looking?" I ask Crystal.

"Well, let's search every inch of these woods," she says.

After doing a bit of estimating and calculations, I say, "But Crystal, that's about nine and a half miles to cover," I say.

"So what? We have all day. We should build a large fire so we always know where camp is. We should pack up our stuff and stick it high in a tree so if anyone stumbles upon our camp, they just see a fire and they don't get our stuff," she suggests.

I don't have any other ideas right now, so I agree. "Fine," I say. "Good with me."

I start packing up our stuff while Crystal starts making a fire. Apparently she spent some quality time at the fire-making station at the training center, because by the time I'm done lugging our two packs of stuff to the top of a tree and finish tying it, she's almost done making the fire catch.

"Just. . . give it a few more seconds," she says, and finishes blowing on the fire. A few moments later, the fire catches, and she steps back. The fire is nice and crackly and hopefully will keep going the whole time we're searching.

"Come on, Elise. Let's get going," says Crystal, who starts heading off in some random direction. "Hopefully they remember the first rule about being lost: You stay where you are and you never move," she says. I run quickly to catch up to her.

The next three hours consist of me calling "ELIJAH! SADIE!" about ten thousand times. Crystal and I take a while and take a real good search.

"Aren't the two other boys going to hear us if we're yelling this loud?" I ask.

"Ah, who cares? We've got weapons and we're ready to kill," she says. _Ready to kill? Oops. Forgot. You're supposed to be a killing machine. _I think.

We eventually make way around the circular part of the arena that's wooded. "They're too smart to hide in the meadow and they would've gone so much farther," Crystal says. We're back at camp and sitting down next to our fire.

"Then maybe my dream is true," I say.

"That's nonsense. Dreams only come true in fairytales," Crystal says. I stare at the fire and think _What have I done? Letting Elijah get out of my sight and now he gets killed? _

"CRYSTAL! ELISE!" I whip my head around to see a beaten up and tired Sadie running towards us, with Keaton and Pierce 40 yards behind her. "Quick!" She says. "Scale a tree!"

I am quick to respond.

It's just that, I forget my spear and my hunting knives at the bottom of the tree I'm in.

**Get ready for some really tense chapters ^_^ **


	20. 21 Down, 2 To Go

**Chapter 20. *sobs* Four more chapters, and then we're done. D: Then I get to move on to other spontanious writing ideas I've came up with. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HG! :D**

**Sorry for the short chapter ^_^**

Elise

I scramble up the tree as fast as I can without even thinking. Luckily, our supplies Crystal and I have brought are still up there, but our weapons are at the bottom. I look down and I see Pierce looking up at us, glaring with eyes that want to kill. He is holding a large array of weapons and is probably going to come up and kill us any moment now. I take this time to climb higher in the tree, so I am now 20 feet up in the air.

Sadie and Crystal are a couple of branches down from where I am. Then it hits me: _Where is Elijah?_ I wonder. "Sadie!" I yell to her. I climb down to where she is laying on a tree, gulping water down, panting, and sweating like a maniac. That doesn't matter now.

"Sadie!" I yell to her again, but I guess that she's so tired from being chased by Pierce that she leans over the side of the tree and pukes. She washes out her mouth with water but then pukes again.

After gulping another half a bottle, she looks over at me and says, "What?"

"Where is Elijah!" I yell.

"He-He-" she starts, but is cut off by the sound of the Capitol's anthem being played. I look around and I realize that the moon is out and the sun has set.

After the anthem has played, I see Elijah's face in the sky, and then I see Keaton, from District 9, in the sky.

Sadie acts as if nothing happened and the anthem didn't play and she says, "He died. Got a knife in the back from Pierce, and then I killed Keaton and Pierce has been chasing me for about five hours now." She then starts hyperventilating and I think that she goes unconscious.

I almost fall out of the tree. My mind starts spinning as my worst fear is confirmed. I don't know what happens, but after a lot of screaming, punching, crying, shrieking, and wailing, I find myself at the topmost branch of the tree Sadie, Crystal and I are in, strapped in so I won't fall out.

Now it is my turn to start hyperventilating. There are no tears in my face because I've already cried them all out in the first few minutes of this realization. I can't speak either. I am in too much shock that my dream is accurate, and I've already screamed myself hoarse.

I take a deep swallow. _Elijah is dead. _

_Now look what you've done. You let Sadie run off with him and she gets him killed. What kind of a sister are you? _I keep beating myself up emotionally. It's all I can do not to go down to where Pierce is sitting, ready for us to die of starvation or face him, and rip his face off and kill him myself, but I have just enough sense left in my feeble body not to. He has all kinds of weapons to kill me, and I almost want to him to kill me because now I have nothing left.

The night is sleepless for me. I stare up at the stars and the moon trying to convince myself that he's still alive somewhere despite the fact that his face was up in the sky tonight, he's not here right now, and Sadie was a witness to his murder.

Exactly. Murder. I didn't really hate the Capitol until they introduced the Hunger Games because they didn't treat District 2 like crap because we're their lapdogs.

Now, I hate them just as much as I could ever hate anything. They took my brother and made a complete stranger kill him just so the stranger could stay alive. I can't compute it and I try not to the whole night.

_Elise. Now you have a chance of winning! _My father has visited my head often now that I'm in real need of advice, and already know that it is him.

_I don't care about winning now. I could just fall out of this tree right now and have Pierce kill me. Right now. _I reply.

_And shame the name of Ares? _he asks.

_I guess not. _I think. Ares leaves me alone after this to mourn.

The night goes by surprisingly fast. Maybe it's just that I fall asleep for a few hours, or maybe it's something else. I'm not really sure at the moment, but the moment the sun starts rising, I unstrap myself and I go down to our pack with our stuff that we had the sense to stick in the tree beforehand. After rummaging through the food we have, my hand feels a sting on it. I take my hand out of the pack and see blood. _There must be a knife in here! _I think to myself. Excited and frantic, I dig my hand back into the pack to dig for the knife again.

"What. . . what are you doing, digging around in there?" Crystal asks. Apparently the noise of me digging around has woken up Sadie and Crystal.

"There's a . . knife in here!" I say, as I grasp the handle with my hand and yank it up out of the pack.

I see a knife. A metal, shining knife that is perfectly sharp and ready to kill, "Let me kill him. He murdered Elijah," I say. Sadie and Crystal smile a sly smile, and we creep down the tree to where Pierce is. He has his hands full with weapons, ready to attack us at any moment, but none of the weapons he has will come in handy because he doesn't even have time to wake up when I thrust the knife down in the direction of his chest as hard as I can, and a cannon shoots.

I jump down the tree to the ground and I stand up. _He's gone now. _I think. Sadie and Crystal slowly climb down the rest of the tree.

We all look at each other for a few moments until we realize we're the last three ones alive.

**:D PLEASE REVIEW! **

**Also, it would be an astoundingly nice thing if you could go check out my buddy Rachel's fanfic. (remove spaces) h t t p : / / w w w . f a n f i c t i o n . n e t / u / 3 3 1 7 6 1 6 / G r a p e f r u i t _ N i n j a 3 6 **

**If you love me and if you love this story, you'll go do that. Also, it'd be nice to review. :D **


	21. My Hand Injury Was Better Than This!

**GRRR! SORRY FOR THIS INSANELY SHORT CHAPTER! GRR! I had VERY little substance to work with here, people! **

It takes a second for this shocking realization to sink in. This spare second I take to realize that Sadie, Crystal and I are the only ones left and two of us have to die, is the second wasted that I am not prepared, and the second that Sadie and Crystal make eye contact and nod, which means they've teamed up to get me. Only one of us can survive, and I'm the next target.

The moment I see that nod, I run. I barely even have time to duck one of Crystal's sharp arrows destined to kill me.

I don't know where I am running towards, but I put all my energy into getting away from the people who are going to kill me; Sadie and Crystal, who are hot on my tail. The Gamemakers, the Capitol citizens, and the District citizens are probably tense watching this. The Game makers are probably thinking, _Let's see a show! _while the Capitol citizens are probably thinking, _Kill her, Crystal, Kill her! _and the District citizens are probably thinking _that poor girl. Why should we have to watch this? _

That doesn't matter now, though. All that matters is getting away. I don't know where I am running, but I soon see luscious green grasses in the distance. The meadow must be up ahead. Even though my energy is quickly being sapped, I don't care and I keep going, being careful not to trip on various rocks and fallen branches, because if I do, then I know that will result in my death.

_Keep going. Just don't die. Stay alive. _Says a voice in my head. Now is not the time for me to be distracted by dad, no matter how much he wants me to listen. I must concentrate. This distraction has caused Sadie and Crystal to get closer to me. While looking behind, I see they're about 15 yards behind me.

By now I can feel tall, dewy grasses swimming around my feet, as happy and as free as anything in the world. _Maybe you should just stop and have them kill you. _I wonder. But there is still that little ounce of courage, that little ounce of adrenaline, that little ounce of hope somewhere inside me; it is the thing that keeps me going. The thought of returning home to my parents, to live a semi-normal life engulfs me, and it gives me strength to move on.

The strength doesn't last forever. I can feel myself tiring out and I wonder how in the heck Sadie ran for almost five while being chased by Pierce. _Come on. If a twelve year old can do it, so can you! _I think. But I've never really been that good at running, or swimming for that matter, and I highly regret the decision for me to jump in the water when I reach the Cornucopia after being chased for what seems like an eternity.

I'm not thinking straight, and I completely forgot that Sadie is from District 4. She jumps in and catches me in seconds and I find myself where I was at the very beginning of these games: at the Cornucopia. At the time, I was fighting off other people, confident in myself, but right now I want to crawl into a ball have a painless death. But I know that's not going to happen.

Sadie and Crystal drag me to the Cornucopia. I resist them, but I am unarmed and they have all the weapons they need. "Shut up, you little twit!" Sadie yells, and spits in my face.

"NGRR!" I grunt, making one last move of resistance. I can't believe that only an hour ago, we were allies, but now Sadie is going to kill me.

"I've had enough of you," she says. "Honestly, I hated you from the start!" My heart drops and she unsheathes her hunting knives.

Pain. Stabbing pain. That is all I can feel. First in my leg, and then in my arm, and last, in my stomach. I look down to see blood running down my body and I know I'm going to die. I start to become dizzy and my vision gets blurry. "She is definitely not going to survive that," Crystal says, and then makes a run for it. Sadie stays back a few moments to watch me, and then she runs off towards Crystal, destined to kill.

I lie there. I might as well be dead, but Hades won't accept my soul. I remember the time long long ago when I was twelve and I was just trying out hunting knives in weaponry class at school, and I had cut myself with a knife. It had gone really deep and I was excused from school for a day, so I stayed home, and my mom helped care for me. Back then, I thought my hand hurt so bad I wanted to die, but now I really know what that feels like. Now I want to die, because my body couldn't handle the pain anymore.

I can feel my body shutting down. My heart stops pumping. My chest stops breathing. Everything goes black.

**You: DID YOU JUST KILL YOUR TWO MAIN CHARACTERS?**

**Me: *runs away from angry fans with pitchforks and torches***

**BUT WAIT! WE'RE NOT DONE YET! Ever so conveniently, this is a PJO crossover. AND GUESS WHERE DEAD PEOPLE GO IN PJO! YOU GUESSED IT! STAY TUNED PEOPLE, FOR THE MOST AMAZING, INTRICATE, AND COMPLICATED BACKSTORY EVAR. **

**review?**


	22. I Take The Magical Journey Of Death

**CHAPTER 23! SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER D: **

**Oh, and Leumer, next chapter (which I have written and and am posting tommorow) is the epic deep backstory.**

When I die (Does that sound weird?) I am magically somehow transported to LA, California. I find myself sitting down in some sort of office, and outside, there is a sign that says "DOA Recording Studios. LA, California." _I wonder what DOA stands for. _I start to wonder what I'm doing here and why, so I go up to a man waiting by an elevator door.

"What am I doing here?" I ask.

"You're dead, hon. Got any drachma? More than one would be preferable," the man replies.

"Drachma?" I ask.

"Drachma. The stuff I get paid with," he replies. I guess Drachma is some form of money. I dig my hands around in my pockets to see if these Drachmas have magically appeared in my pocket, but nothing happens. I look back to him, and he seems to be looking at me as if he's analyzing me. He then starts sniffing. "I should've known," he says. "Scratch that, you're coming with me." He grabs my hand and we enter the elevator and travel far down into the ground. I can't even keep track of how far we are down, and eventually, the door opens.

There is a boat ahead at a dock in this very . . . interesting river. Everywhere was polluted with broken toys, ripped up diplomas, and a lot of other stuff I didn't recognize. It took me only a few moments for me to realize that these are bad memories, wishes that didn't and will never come true: all the things that anyone has ever messed up in their life. All bunched into a river. "This is a very interesting river," I remark to myself.

"Don't touch the water," he says. I have enough common sense to trust him and not to touch it. He helps me into the boat and we quickly start traveling downstream. _Well this is interesting. He's treating me like I'm some sort of royalty. _I think. We sail down the scary river of memories, and we eventually reach gates. I climb out of the river, and the first thing I notice is that there is a three headed dog. _Am I dreaming? _I wonder. Today has been a really weird day. Again, I am treated like royalty, and this dog ignores me an lets me pass.

I stand in front of the gates, and they magically open as if I'm entering some sort of magical fairy land. Which I'm 99% sure I'm not.

When I enter the gate, I look around, and there are people before, waiting as if we have been waiting forever. Waiting. . in a line. _Okay _I think to myself _Now we're in a line. You've been transported to LA, had a lesson on money, been taken down in an elevator and taken down hundreds of stories. Then you've ridden on a boat on a weird memory river. Then a giant three headed dog that looked like it was going to kill you- Wait, you're already dead. . . - So, the giant dog ignores you. You go through a gate and now you're in line._

I contemplate what's been happening to be, and after about ten more minutes of standing in line, I hear somebody say, "Kid, come here. You get up to the top of the line. The boss wants to talk with you ASAP." I blink my eyes, and when they open I then find myself in front of a bunch of serious-looking people, like I am being tried in a trial.

"He died a noble death," one says. I am confused and I stand there awkwardly.

"He's a-" another butts in, but doesn't finish his sentence.

"You can't blame him," says another.

"What about his sister?"

The chattering goes on for about 10 more minutes until the guy who looks like the head judge bangs a gavel and says, "Elysium."

Elysium? That name rings a bell. Elise may have mentioned it once or twice. I don't know. I remember her saying something about where you go when you die. The Otherworld, was it? No, the Underworld. That's it.

The next thing I see in this fantastic journey of death is rainbow grass. _Okay. You're dreaming. I hereby declare you alive and dreaming, Elijah, because this journey has been WAY TOO WEIRD. _Yes! There is grass that ripples in rainbow colors everywhere. I hear laughter and smell barbecue cooking. My vision clears up, and I can see that I am looking out the window of a house.

I turn around and look at the room I'm in, wondering how I got here. There is a nice full sized bed, a comfortable looking couch, and a door that I guess leads to a bathroom. I walk across the room and open another door to see a closet full of clothes. "Wow," I say. "Dying was totally worth this!" I cross the room again and lie down on my bed and close my eyes.

Suddenly, I am engulfed in some sort of. . . dream, I guess. It's kind of like I'm watching a TV. I hear the words, "LIVE! Coverage from the Hunger Games, right here!"

I see clips of Sadie running through the desert and into the woods, with somebody chasing her. She looks unarmed and exhasted. _She must be running from the time that I died_! I think in my magical dream-vision. _Wait a minute. Sadie. Oh my gods she kissed you! Well, it's not like you wanted to kiss her._ _Just great. The Kiss Of Death. _I think to myself. I sit down on the bed and continue watching. There are now shots of Elise and Crystal sitting around a fire near a camp. Then, an announcer says, "Wait, by the looks of it, District Four is going to collide with One And Two!"

_Elise. Please don't die in the process. _I think. It then shows an overhead, and then it shows Sadie yelling to Elise and Crystal. "QUICK! Scale a tree!" She yells. They all drop everything and scale a tree that ever-so-conveniently has a pack of food in it.

Then I get to see my sister freak out. I guess it's probably the afternoon of when I died, so she probably hasn't figured out I'm dead yet. We see shots of her begging Sadie to know where I am, and then Sadie upchucking, and then my sister throwing a fit.

I want to start crying watching her throw the biggest fit of crying any fourteen-year-old could ever accomplish. The sun sets, and then they show the deaths for today. I see my face and the boy whom I guess killed me.

My eyes open and I jolt up suddenly, awake from my dream/vision of The Games.

.-.-.-.-.-.

I sit there for hours, doing nothing except for worry and worry about what is happening to Elise. There are no clocks and no light, so I have no clue what time it is, and It's really bugging me.

Then starts the ringing in my ears. The ringing that happens when anyone dies. I want to scream, because it's so annoying. "ELISE!" I yell as if I know that it's her life force that's the ringing stops. _Now she's taking the magical journey of death! _I think.

I can basically feel where she is as it happens: She's at the weird man begging for the money in the boat in the river full of dead memories. She's in line to be judged. She's been kicked to the front of the line, as I was, and is being judged.

"What?" I hear a familiar voice downstairs. _Elise. _I think. I stand up and bolt downstairs as fast as I can, trying to navigate my way through this unfamiliar house as best I can. "Where am-" I hear Elise, but she is cut off when she sees me and screams.

She runs over to hug me and she starts crying. Hard, and long, and I just stand there and pat her on the back. "Elijah. You- you died!" she says, and then bombards me with more hugs.

"Did you have fun on your magical journey of death?" I ask, and she laughs.

"Yes," she says. "I had lots of fun. It was great. I somehow managed to convince Charon to let me through without any Drachma.

"Is that the guy in the weird tux who asks for Drachyma?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says. "And it's Drachma."

"Drachma," I repeat.

"Yes," she says, and hugs me again. Then I hear a knock on the door. We navigate ourselves through the new house we have down here in the Underworld. We open the door.

There is a serious-looking person in a tux. "Lord Hades wants to speak to the both of you," he barks. _Oh God. Am I in trouble? _I wonder.


	23. Hades Explains Everything

**Finally! Here we are! The last chapter of this story D: *tear* I would love it so much if you guys would review. Also, check back later for an epilogue and a link to get this story as an eBook!**

**Note: I highly advise NOT skimming this chapter. You're going to miss something and be like, WHAT? So make sure to read everything.**

We are whisked away to the palace of Lord Hades. The place is dark, and frankly, kind of scary. Elise and I are lead through long corridors and hallways that seem unending until we find ourselves in the throne room of Hades.

I take a good look at Hades. He's actually kind of creepy. He has olive skin and dark hair. His robes are really terrifying. It looks like there are faces of dying people swimming all over them, which only amps up the creep factor.

"Lord Hades," Elise kneels to the floor, and I take her example and kneel too. I don't want to get blasted, like she mentioned once would happen if you didn't show respect to a god and they weren't in a good mood.

"You may be wondering why I called the both of you here," Hades says. Elise rises from her kneel, and I do as well.

"Yes, Sir," Elise says.

"I'm not necessarily allowed to do this," he sighs, "But nothing will happen otherwise, and, well . . . you'll see." Hades steps down from his throne. Up close, he doesn't look as scary looking. Well, kind of.

A table suddenly morphs from the ground out of nowhere, and the room changes and morphs as well. It is not the throne room anymore. Then, chairs morph. There are two in front of Elise and I, and a really comfortable looking one that Hades sits in.

"Sit down," he says. I sit down, and Elise sits next to me on my left.

"Oh, also, if any of the other gods ask about this, don't mention it to them. We're not supposed to converse with mortals about prophecies and such," he warns. There is silence from Elise and I. We both nod our heads in approval.

"There's a prophecy that concerns Elijah and I?" Elise asks.

"Yes, and a very deep backstory that is going to convince you to go through with it," he says.

He sighs. "This is going to be a long story. Might as well get started. A very very long time ago, I'm not sure how long, though, there were seven heroes. They were destined to save the world from Gaia and her giants, but they failed and most of them died, and Gaia and her giants took over the world. You with me so far?" he asks.

"Yes," Elise and I say.

"Good. Let's keep going. All the giants caused so much chaos that the whole world fell into disarray. Mostly North America, though," he says. Hades takes a deep breath and sighs as if he's about to tell us a big spoiler for a big movie.

"On a totally different tangent, have you two ever heard of the Romans?" he asks.

"No," I say.

"Maybe once or twice," Elise says. She frowns as if she's trying to remember something.

"Well, even a more long time ago, after the Greeks ruled in the ancient times, the Romans took over, and they adopted the same gods as the Greeks. But we have different versions. People tend to say that I'm more war-like and more important-looking as a Roman, like the Romans were," Hades says.

"Yes! I've heard that mentioned once before," Elise says. _Definetly not in History class. _I think. _We just learn about how the Capitol took over each year._

"Back to the disarray. There were still some Roman demigods around, like there were Greeks. The Romans took this opportunity of North America being in disaster and having no leader or ruler to take over again. This time they created the Capitol and the Thirteen Districts," he says.

Elise's jaw drops. I'm not sure why, but this must be important.

"So then about a year ago, the Greeks rebelled against the Romans and the Capitol," Hades explains. "So when the Romans finally came out on top in the end, the Dark Days were over, and they decided to create The Hunger Games to get rid of Greek Demigods. The reapings have been influenced to include demigods," Hades says.

"But nobody besides me was from Camp!" Elise says.

"Ah, yes, Elise. You see, the Greek side of us gods have taken a . . . very good liking towards Mortals for the past 20 years. So far, there's about 100 of you living, and 75% of you don't even know you're demigods because the security is so tight in the Districts, and most can't find their way to camp. Crystal was a daughter of Aphrodite-"

"Was?" Elise buts in.

"Oh, yes. Crystal died ten minutes ago. Sadie is the victor," Hades says calmly. It hits me like a pile of bricks. _The very first Hunger Games are over. . . _Oddly enough, I can't remember my life without being in the Hunger Games. It seems way longer than nine or ten days.

"Let me continue," Hades says. "Sadie and Fish are children of Poseidon, District 3 were children of Hephaestus, Districts 9 and 11 were children of Demeter. The boy from District 10 was a son of Apollo." He lists off unknown demigods.

"The Game Makers stuck monsters in the Arena because they're a lot more deadly than Mutts and they are more effective on Demigods than mutts, so they also stuck some Celestial Bronze and Roman Imperial Gold into the cornucopia," Hades explains.

"So, wait a minute," Elise butts in again. "You're listing off all these demigods in the Arena. What about Elijah? He, oddly enough, seemed a heck of a lot like a demigod to me," she says.

"Well, about that. Elijah, yes you are a demigod," Hades says. He sighs as if he know he's probably going to have his butt kicked for telling us this. He then starts glowing.

"Look away!" Elise calls. I close my eyes and look away, and then the light dies down. When I open my eyes, Hades looks changed. He is now in a dark purple toga and his face looks a bit different. His cheekbones are sharper and his jaw is more dominant.

"I am Pluto. I am Hades's Roman counterpart, and you, Elijah, are my son," he says. My jaw drops to the ground and I can't pick it up.

Elise does all the talking needed. "But, wait, if Elijah's a Roman demigod, then why did they let him get picked for the Games? Don't they want to get rid of Greeks?"

"Maybe it really was that your name was picked out of thousands. Maybe they knew you were a demigod, but thought you were Greek. I don't know," Pluto says.

"That makes sense that you are Roman," Elise realizes. "You were attracted to that sword with Roman Imperial Gold." I remember the sword I liked so much.

"Let's continue," Hades/Pluto says. "There has been a prophecy given. It tells of an unknown demigod being born for the third time to help stop the Romans and the Capitol. It also mentions of a daughter of Ares being born again to stop the Romans and the Capitol. It was because of this prophecy that I am even talking to you. I had a moment of realization and I also grilled the Fates, and I have a good guess that this prophecy applies to you two."

_Okay. Honestly, Elijah, calm down. Take a freaking chill pill. It's a lot to take in, but it'll be okay, right? _I think. My mind is all over the place, but Pluto keeps talking.

"You said I would be reborn for the third time," I say. "Who was I my first life?" I ask. Wow. That sounds weird.

"Well, you're going to be reborn again, so this can't hurt. Your name was Luke Castellan. You helped defeat the Titans and you started the trend with half celestial bronze half mortal steel when it comes to weapons," he says.

"Wow." That is all I can say.

"So. . . " Elise starts. "If we are reborn again, according to this prophecy that has been given that is going to stop the Romans and the Captiol, we will be prime helpers in another rebellion against the Capitol?"

"According to the prophecy," Pluto says.

"Then what are we waiting for, Elijah?" Elise asks. "We need to be reborn ASAP!"

I don't even know what it means to be reborn, but I don't hesitate for a moment. I will do anything to stop the Capitol. "Sure," I say, having no clue what I'm getting myself into.

"Okay," Lord Pluto says. "That was easy convincing. Let's take you to the Lethe and see how long it takes for you two to be reborn."

**Wow. I can't believe I'm done with this . . . Check back later for an epilogue and PLEASE REVEIW. I have spent hours coming up with that amazing backstory connecting PJO, HoO, and THG. :D **

***Tear* D: _How can I be done with this already? _**


	24. Epilogue

**PeetaLuver98, I would love to write a sequel, but A, they have. It's a trilogy and it's called The Hunger Games Trilogy, and B, I'm totally switching up genres here and I'm going to try writing some Ace Attorney stuff. :D **

****_He will be born for the third time,_

_After being put to death for other's crimes._

_The countless murders he will put an end to._

_By loving the one he always knew. _

_An unknown demigod he once was, _

_Will be born again to stop the cause. _

_She will be born again into another life_

_After being killed in a bloody strife. _

_She will be the one who leads, _

_Because of her, rebellion will succeed._

_A daughter of Ares she once was_

_Will be born again to stop the cause._

57 years later, two children were born in a little town in District 12 to the Mellarks and the Everdeens. What they wouldn't know until the 74th Hunger Games was that the prophecy would apply to their children and their children would be the ones to stop the Capitol

**Here is a link to download this story in an eBook Format. Took me long enough to do. O_o h t t p : / / w w w . m e d i a f i r e . c o m / ? z x v 2 z j p 2 8 5 r v u i r**


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